Dr. Timothy Miller: What Your Arches, Achilles, and Bunions Are Telling You About Menopause | #163

**Timothy Miller** (0:00)
Feet aren't just vessels of movement. They really are the base of our support. Unfortunately, people don't pay too much attention to their feet unless they have an issue with it.

**Vonda Wright** (0:10)
It's not just your foot, people. The foot can affect all the way up to your low back.

**Timothy Miller** (0:15)
Exactly.

**Vonda Wright** (0:16)
Every step you take, every move you make, Dr. Tim Miller is watching you. Dr. Miller or Sunshine Podiatry. What is one thing every woman over 45 just must do for her feet besides a pedicure?

**Timothy Miller** (0:31)
Pay attention to that. A lot of people still don't.

**Vonda Wright** (0:34)
What can we do to strengthen our feet?

**Timothy Miller** (0:37)
When you go to the gym, yeah, you're working on your bighs, your tris, your abs, your glutes. You got to work on your feet too, they're just as important. Women in particular going through hormone changes, feet changing size, we will see an increase in shoe size because of those ligaments loosely around.

**Vonda Wright** (0:54)
Okay, stop, stop, stop, Dr. Miller. I thought the foot was growing, the bones were growing like a child would grow, but what you're saying, it's not growing, it's loosening and spreading out.

**Timothy Miller** (1:08)
100%, that's it. Yep, yep.

**Vonda Wright** (1:11)
That's what's going on, they're not growing, they're spreading.
Welcome back to The Dr. Vonda Show, and we have never talked about what we're gonna talk about today, but every step you take, every move you make, Dr. Tim Miller is watching you. Or if I refer you to him, he's watching you. Dr. Miller is a colleague of mine here in Orlando. He has offices in Orlando and Celebration. He is a podiatric surgeon, and when I have a foot problem or a wound problem, because you're also an expert in wound care, I was telling you what I do is when I see patients, I leave instructions for my staff, and I'm like Dr. Miller or Sunshine Podiatry, because the fact is in medicine and surgery, we kind of divide up by body parts, and the foot has so many friggin bones and even more ligaments and tendons that thank God, there's someone who loves that to refer to. So I am thankful to have you on today.

**Timothy Miller** (2:21)
And I am absolutely thankful to be here. Thank you for all of your support and having me. You are such a juggernaut in our profession. And in Central Florida, Florida, now the United States, the way you do and how you are able to get the correct information out there and help support us and your colleagues is fantastic. I thank you for everything.

**Vonda Wright** (2:44)
Thank you so much for saying all that. Well, listen, I think that this episode is going to be really, really important for people because when I was preparing, I found that foot pain or really below the ankle pain is in the top 20 reasons people go see a clinician.
As we age, all the itises, the Achilles tendonitis, the plantar fasciitis, the fallen arches, the hammer toes, which is where your second and third toe rise up and have a life of their own, or bunions where your great toe decides to take residence under the other four toes and it becomes like this gnarled thing. I mean, these are real and you see totally put together midlife women, and then you look at their feet and we're like, something is going on with the structure here. And so I thought we would talk about that because it's frustrating, right? If you break your arm, it sits like this in a sling, you got another arm. But if something's going on with your feet, it's a thousand steps a mile of hurt.

**Timothy Miller** (3:50)
And that's actually how I got into this profession is I was hurt.
I was an athlete and that was hurt. And I saw a podiatrist and I saw what can be done and how patients can walk in hobbled, hurting, need help and can walk out happy and feeling better about their situation. So it's funny you said that because it was a great segue into why I chose this as a career.

**Vonda Wright** (4:14)
And that's so important because you got to show up day in, day out. And the why of knowing that you're helping people get back to the lives that they envision is so important.
You know, I was thinking about this talk earlier this weekend because I'm training for a big race and...

**Timothy Miller** (4:33)
Awesome.

**Vonda Wright** (4:33)
Yeah, really good. But when I get up to the to the kind of intensity I'm at right now, predictably, because of my gait, and I'm going to tell you why, and then you can introduce us to the wonder of the foot, because of my gait, which for those of you who are unindoctrinated, right, your heel lands, you roll through the midfoot, roll off the forefoot, often through your great toe.