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Hi Andrea. Just to let you know, the insoles were a great success. My feet are much better now. I have greatly reduced using the insoles now as my feet seem so much better, however, for longer walks, I do use them. Thank you. Roger Betts

"Andrea has been brilliant in helping me treat hideous everyday pain from plantar fasciitis. She is a very knowledgeable, calm and supportive person. My only wish is that I had contacted her sooner. Thank you!" says Karen Turner.

Thanks to Kirsty Young for this posting on Facebook: "A whole-hearted recommendation for Andrea Bremner. As I was a first time client, she took time to listen to my requirements, and took great care in customising the orthotics 'postings' (extra bits). My new insoles are so much better fitted than my previous pair (from someone else, I might add!), drastically reducing the adjustment period from weeks to just a few days. And her iPad playlist is great too!"

So nice to get positive feedback. Thanks to Jo Seager for taking the time to let me know that her insoles have really helped.

"I booked an appointment with Andrea as I had been having problems with pain in the balls of my feet and my toes. From the outset, Andrea gave me every confidence that she could help me, she explained why I was having the problems. She recommended some orthotic insoles to help with this problem. I feel like I am walking on air with insoles. It was a breath of fresh air to talk to someone who understood my foot pain - an added bonus is that I no longer have pain in my knees or hips. I would recommend her to anyone having problems with their feet."

I attended a networking meeting a couple of weeks ago and met Tino Da Silva from Business First TV. He recorded me talking about the custom insoles I mould and made a very professional video for me free of charge :-) This was totally off the cuff, and super early in the morning, so a bit rough but gets a message across. Hope you like it, and thanks to Tino - super professional! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax2B1Tw4bRg&feature=youtu.be

Lovely testimonial from one of my patients:

"What a difference! After my first consultation for Foot Balance insoles I felt the difference as soon as I put my shoes back on. Everything was explained clearly and I felt Andrea really understood the problems I have with my feet. She carefully looked at my feet, my stance, how my knees were impacted by my incorrect foot movement when walking and the differences in the arches of my feet. My day and walking shoes fit properly now and I can certainly feel the difference when walking. Professional, immediate results and great value for money. Will be telling all my friends and family."

I love this tip - if you suffer from hot and painful feet (particularly at night time) you can purchase Biofreeze which is a great gel/spray to cool you down, or you can make your own cooling balm: Get a small pump spray bottle, 1/2 fill with water, 1/2 fill with surgical spirit, 2 drops of tea tree oil. Voila!

This week I received two great reviews from a couple of patients. Here they are:

"I can highly recommend Andrea . She is a lovely lady who sorted out a verruca, that had plagued me for years."

"I also thoroughly recommend Andrea, she has been looking after my feet, (which aren’t in the best of shape) for the last 5 months now. She’s doing a great job and always has new ideas for different treatments. She has a great little treatment room & is a lovely person too! 😊"

Cracked heels are very common and can be very painful. You can really help yourself and self treat with a good heel cream which has a high concentration of uric acid. I use Splitz cream on my patients with excellent results. Before applying you need to have the dry cracked skin removed with a very coarse file or even better a scalpel. (don't do this yourself!!) Then coat the affected area in the uric acid cream. You can tape the heel up if the cracks are really bad and keep socks on day and night. With regular attention your heels should be smooth and soft in time for the summer 😎

I had this wonderful testimonial left on Yell.com yesterday. Made me smile :-)))

I have been going to Andrea’s foot clinic since 2017 and have been amazed by the results in such a short time. I had been previously told by a doctor that there was nothing they could do to improve the problem that I had with my feet (fungal infection/hardening of the nails & athletes foot) unless I took a course of tablets which I wasn’t prepared to do due to possible side effects. After the first visit with Andrea, the difference was so noticeable and after only 3 visits, the results are great! I would highly recommend Andrea as she not only knows her stuff, she is also a very lovely lady........so glad I found her! 👍

This week something new was brought to my attention and that is Thuja and Verrucas. I was aware that boosting your immune system with homeopathic remedies like Thuja were good for getting rid of verrucas, but now that I have seen an amazing result by a fellow Foot Health colleague, I have been recommending Thuja as a complimentary supplement to all my patients who are unfortunate enough to be invaded by this stubborn virus. If you want to know more, please do get in touch with me. Here is a link to some comments about it on Amazon - happy reading!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nelsons-100273-Clikpak-Thuja-30c/dp/B002QWGX9W/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1516705227&sr=8-1&keywords=nelsons+thuja

Tired feet from all that Christmas shopping? Soon to be worn-out after all that cooking, entertaining and partying! Book yourself a foot treatment in January to sooth those aches and pains.

I've had quite a patients with few fungal nail problems this week. If your nails have yellow patches or are brittle and crumbling, do get in touch because the longer you leave it, like many foot conditions, the harder it is to treat. £10 off first treatment in November. I treat fungal nails with Phytonail which is very effective if used daily by the patient. Filing the surface of the nail before application also helps.

I had a patient this week who needed nails trimming and filing together with hard skin and corns removed. Also interested in NLP, they explained a problem they have surrounding anxiety and fear in a particular situation. So, whilst treating their feet, I also shared some NLP techniques to help to reduce the anxiety when a certain trigger occurs. It was very rewarding for both myself and the patient. A win-win. I found the experience very rewarding and the patient left delighted with comfortable feet and some tools to help tackle anxiety. 

I had a young lady this week who is breast-feeding and has verrucas. I treated them by paring back the callus, covering each verruca, with a scalpel and then applied Glutarol. Glutarol contains the active ingredient glutaraldehyde at 10% concentration. This is safe to apply when pregnant or breastfeeding. Verrucas are notoriously difficult to treat, with only a 50% success rate for most common treatments, but this patient wanted to give Glutarol a go as she is fed up with them! Between treatments she needs to occlude oxygen by applying zinc oxide tape (or equivalent). Glutaraldehyde is known to kill the verruca virus (HPV) and restricting oxygen supply will also aid in the process.

A patient arrived stating that she had sore feet. On inspection she had four huge, hard corns on the balls of both feet by her big toe and her little toe. With my scalpel I gently pared down each one and managed to enucleate them. She walk out of my clinic free from pain. A very rewarding treatment! Another patient could not believe the shape of her big toe once the hard callus on the medial edge had been pared back. She always thought her big toe was shaped large and round and now she has a very slender big toe!

This week I treated a man with a very deep corn. Huge callus build up and a very deep nucleus. After paring down I created a 5mm 'corn' padding for him to take the pressure off the area. I also treated a lady with a fungal nail on her big toe. After burring down with the drill, I applied Phytonail fungal treatment to the area. She needs to continue with this treatment daily to allow healthy nail to grow through. I also had a breast-feeding mum with verrucae. I had to be very careful with the products I used because of lactating. For this first treatment I just pared down and restricted oxygen access with a fleecy web tape. She needs to continue starving them of oxygen and next time I will par back further and apply some TT50 cream or Glutarol.

From September 2017 I will start treating patients foot problems as well as helping them with their nutrition (weight loss if necessary) and supporting them emotionally with important lifestyle changes using the tools of NLP.