ROLLING YOUR ANKLE AS YOU AGE IS NOT NORMAL

“There's a common misconception that it's normal for your ankles to roll when you're walking,” says Patrick McEneaney, DPM. It’s not true. Typically, these problems start as an ankle pain and old sprains from when people were younger that resurface in your 30s and 40s when the ankle ligaments may not hold as tight as they used to, leading to instability and rolling.

 

Dr. Patrick McEneaney

 

Left unchecked, ankle instability can progress into damage to the cartilage in the ankle and eventually even arthritis of the ankle. “To diagnose this, we’ll typically do an x-ray or MRI or do what’s called a stress exam, where the doctor stresses the ligaments to see if they hold,” he says. "A lot of times, bracing and therapy can be a permanent fix for this when it's not a simple ankle ligament repair; we can actually tighten up the ankle.”

 

Source: Judy Koutsky, Health Central [7/7/21]

Courtesy of Barry Block, editor of PM News