Which toe keeps your balance

Loss of one of those elements can significantly inhibit a person's ability to skip, run or walk. The pinky also helps us to push off the side of a swimming pool when diving in, making it extra-important to the livelihoods of competitive swimmers, says podiatrist Dr. Mark Hinkes via email. The type of shoes you wear can impact your little toe negatively. This malady is known as bursitis and it really hurts," says Hinkes, noting that narrow-toed shoes are pinky killers. Pointy-toe shoes can also cause hammertoe to develop, which is when the toe abnormally bends in the middle.

It's more common in the second, third and fourth toes at the middle joint, but can also occur in pinkies. The pain potential doesn't end there, however. These lesions are called corns," Hinkes explains. Corns don't look like much to write home about, but they have been likened to having a constant rock in the shoe, and sometimes require surgery to get rid of. So, let's say you severely stub or smash your toe and you fear that it's fractured.

What next? Don't try to tough it out — visit a doctor and get an X-ray. A fracture that isn't properly treated could subject you to premature arthritis if the joint is impacted. If the muscle or bone is however injured, conservative management is advised to try and preserve the defected part. So even though the pinky toe itself has no functional value, removing the metatarsal would make running, walking and skipping nearly impossible.

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The quasar J is 13 billion light-years away from Earth. But it still can reveal a lot about our own universe. This causes the muscle ligaments and tendons to have to work much harder supporting feet which are overly loose and floppy. The foot type associated with this are those pronated or flat feet. When you have a stiff foot in the walking cycle this leads to little to no shock absorption. As a result excessive shock is placed through muscles ligaments and tendons and can overstress these tissues.

The foot type most commonly associated with this are those supinated or high arched feet. In both foot types there can be a negative effect on the nerves in the feet and legs.

Balance nerves mechanoreceptors are responsible for our balance. They send messages to the brain letting us know how feet are working and where they are in space.

During the Vietnam War, young men considered drastic measures to dodge the draft: flee the country, fake an asthma attack or shoot off a big toe. An amputee, according to legionnaire's legend, would be unfit to trudge across rice paddies or move fast to escape enemy fire. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism.

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