Just to familiarize our senior readers about psoriatic arthritis and how it is different from your ordinary arthritis, I am giving a short background description of psoriatic arthritis.

Psoriatic arthritis is an inflammatory arthritis which means aside from your usual arthritic joint aches, there would also be swelling, pitting of nails (i.e nails separating from its bed), pain in heels and soles of the feet which makes it near impossible for the sufferer to walk or stand on them. This type of psoriatic arthritis affects those with diagnosed chronic psoriasis, the skin condition.

This means that if you already have psoriasis, the skin condition, pray to God that you won’t get arthritis too since about 30% of diagnosed psoriasis patients developed the condition. And because it affects your feet, it limits mobility. While some “episodes” of psoriatic arthritis are crippling, most are manageable, in which cases, it still allows seniors to walk and stand using their feet. However, it is highly encouraged for seniors to choose their footwear wisely to prevent further exacerbation of their condition.

Here are some tips for choosing the right footwear for your arthritic feet:

* Go for sturdy designs. You need all the support you can get! Shop for footwear that is both sturdy and supportive. This way all the supporting you need doesn’t depend on your capabilities alone plus the shoes might even lend you a helping hand when you need it the most. Pay special attention particularly on the heels and balls of your feet.
* Good coverage. You might want to add some more protection to your feet against everyday hazards, well even that small pebble that usually ends up in between your toes hurts! I, personally recommend closed toes such as rubber shoes or sturdy pumps. I did some online window shopping and found some cute designs with rubber soles so that provide the coverage and support your feet needs.
* Comfort should be number one. While I recommend full-coverage shoes, this type of shoes can also be uncomfortable to wear sometimes. I do know that time can only tell if a footwear is comfortable or not but one good thing to remember when shopping for a shoe is never to depend on your “usual” size and always look for adequate cushioning. Adequate cushioning almost always guarantees comfortability.
* Proper allowance. Because of your psoriatic arthritis, expect your feet to have swellings of different levels, some days it can be moderate, or severe or none at all. To be able to accommodate these swellings, you need to have a footwear that has proper allowance – preferably half an inch on all sides. This is also why full coverage shoes are most recommended for your condition since other types of footwear requires a fit that has no allowance.