MIDDLEBURG \u2014What’s misunderstood could also be a potential lifesaver. That’s especially true when it comes to foot health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Podiatry remains one of the most misread branches of medicine in today’s society.\u00a0 Because of this, Dr. Candice Kennedy, owner of Total Foot Care and Wellness Clinic, said it’s important to keep tabs on just how healthy your feet are.<\/p>\n
“I tell everyone, your feet are the foundation of your mansion. If your feet are not happy, it can literally through off your entire body,”she said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Podiatry focuses specifically on issues with feet and the lower limbs. As a podiatrist, Kennedy said she handles issues such as bunions, fractures, heel pain, tendonitis, hammer toes, amputations, wound care and sports injuries.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people are shocked to find out the scope of everything that we deal with,” Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
From a little girl, Kennedy said she had always wanted to be a surgeon. It was especially clear when she began making incisions in her stuff teddy bears and sewing them back together with paper clips.<\/p>\n
Growing up with a family of doctors, she knew it would be her calling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I wanted to follow my grandfather’s footsteps and become an oral surgeon,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until the dean of her master’s program suggested she try podiatry. After shadowing two doctors, she knew that’s where she needed to be. She went to medical school in Miami and did a residency in New York for three years. Following that, she completed a one-year sports medicine fellowship in California.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She and her husband then moved to Jacksonville where she sought to begin her own practice. She started off by taking house calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I just made sure that I took really great care of people and word spread. So, I started getting more house calls. And then from there, we got an office space,” Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
They continued to expand.\u00a0 And since then, they\u00a0have opened\u00a0five local practices in the Jacksonville area, including one in Middleburg. The Total Foot Care and Wellness Clinic celebrated its 10th anniversary in January.<\/p>\n
As April is National Foot Health Awareness month, Kennedy said her practices are making sure to take a key approach to making sure patients are educated and aware of the importance of seeing a podiatrist. Podiatry, she said, is often a lifesaver.<\/p>\n
“We’re oftentimes the first ones to diagnose certain things such as STD’s or circulation issues or diabetes,” Kennedy said. “So, a lot of times we’re catching stuff before other disciplines are doing it.”<\/p>\n
Educating patients on what could potentially pose a future problem is important to avoid later issues. Kennedy said some of the largest at-risk patients are diabetics. One nick in the skin, she said, could lead to a wound, an infection and potential amputation.<\/p>\n
“Just empowering people to understand how they can take care of their legs and feet at home,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some tips for doing that, she said, include limiting indoor shoe wear and wearing socks, and checking your legs and feet every day. Kennedy said proper, supportive shoe wear is also key. And a good rule of thumb is switching your shoes out every 200 miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also recommends visiting a podiatrist once a year or every two or three months for prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If there’s any changes, if you notice something big or small, make an appointment with your local podiatrist so that he or she can get a hand on it before that becomes problematic.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIDDLEBURG \u2014What’s misunderstood could also be a potential lifesaver. That’s especially true when it comes to foot health.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":{"0":"post-225152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-argyle","9":"tag-clay-county","10":"tag-doctors-inlet","11":"tag-eagle-harbor","12":"tag-fleming-island","13":"tag-green-cove-springs","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","16":"tag-jacksonville-news","17":"tag-keystone-heights","18":"tag-lake-asbury","19":"tag-margaret","20":"tag-middleburg","21":"tag-orange-park","22":"tag-pace-island","23":"tag-penney-farms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}