So many of my friends have had some kind of a “foot thing,” it seems to be a midlife rite of passage!  Along with colonoscopies, root canals, and cholesterol tests, a visit to the podiatrist and a lowering of heel height seem to be part of the over-40 landscape.  That piercing heel pain of plantar fasciitis can be eased by consistently stretching, flexing, and rolling your feet around on a tennis ball or frozen bottle of water.  For persistent pain, a new treatment is Botox!   75% of sufferers improved with Botox injections into the heel or calf.  Then there’s the bunion that goes ballistic and needs surgery – 6 weeks to 6 months off your feet for that…and they can come back again!  Also a bundle of laughs is the persistent pain behind the toes, otherwise known as Morton’s Neuroma.  You can do injections a few times, but then…surgery time.    The fact is that, like elsewhere on your body, the fleshy padding on your feet is decreasing and the ankle and toe tendons are losing some juice.  Before you know it, those Easy Spirits are lookin’ really good, aren’t they?  Shoe forums also like Anne Klein and Nine West for comfort.