Keeping your feet healthy is important to stay active and to avoid pain and other foot problems. They are the foundation for your active and fulfilling lifestyle. They play a major role in your daily activities whether you are going to work, chasing your kids, participating in sports, or simply walking around with your family. They are one of your constant allies in your busy life.
However, there are some people who experience poor foot health but they do not do anything until it leads to a major problem. But you do not have to experience that because keeping your feet healthy is very easy. With that, here are some of the best tips for you to ensure great foot health.
1. Always keep your feet clean and dry
To ensure great foot health, the first step is good hygiene. When you take a bath, make sure that you clean and scrub your feet thoroughly using soap, water and loofah. After taking a bath, dry your feet well especially between each individual toe. It’s because excess moisture between the toes can lead to fungal infections. Therefore, depriving fungal organisms of any wetness will make it difficult for them to thrive.
2. Cut your nails properly and get pedicures
It’s important to cut your nails to the proper length to avoid painful ingrown toenails. It’s because cutting them too short or rounding them will enable the skin on either side of the nail to fold over which can lead to infections. It is also essential to visit trained professionals for pedicures. But before scheduling an appointment to your salon, check first if they use hospital-grade disinfectants on all of their instruments between clients to ensure safety.
3. Keep your feet moisturized
Our feet have sensitive skins and if they become dry, it can cause painful complications like cracked heels. To avoid this, you can apply a thick moisturizer regularly over your whole foot, but not between the toes. Moisturizers can help provide a seal over your skin to keep water from escaping and to prevent your skin from drying out. If you’re experiencing extremely dry and cracked heels, you may need to exfoliate them to remove the dead skin and then apply oil to the dry areas if you notice that lotions do not work.
4. Get the right shoe size
Wearing the proper size of shoes will also help ensure great foot health because wearing shoes that are too small or too big can lead to a number of problems. When you wear big shoes, they can cause blisters. Wearing small shoes, on the other hand, can lead to more serious and long-term problems such as bunions, corns, and other deformities which sometimes require surgery. These can also cause less serious but uncomfortable issues like ingrown nails.
5. Limit time wearing uncomfortable shoes
There are lots of shoes and footwear that are good-looking but uncomfortable to wear. This does not mean that you should get rid of them. You should just limit the time wearing them. These shoes can be high heels which can be bad for your feet and spine, and as well as other should such as flip-flops, pointed-toed shoes, worn-out shoes, and flats that do not have arch support.
6. Wear high-quality socks
Wearing good socks can also help ensure great foot health. Our feet have more than 250,000 sweat glands that’s why bacteria find them the perfect warm and moist environment to thrive. If you wear moisture wicking socks, you will be able to prevent the growth of bacteria and at the same time, discourage smelly feet. Remember to change your socks often as well to avoid foot odor.
7. Protect your feet when you use public areas
When you shower at the gym, in locker rooms, and at public pools, make sure that you were shoes. It’s because these places tend to be breeding grounds for fungi and other bacteria that may cause foot infections.
8. Avoid sharing footgear
Another way to get fungal infections is through wearing other people’s shoes and socks. Therefore, as much as possible, always wear your own footgear to ensure great foot health.
9. Do some foot exercise
Doing some exercises can also improve your feet’s health and aside from that, it can also prevent injury. Foot exercises should be focused on improving flexibility and strength. Some of the great exercises you can do are ankle rolls to improve range of motion and rolling a ball under your feet so that you can work your plantar fascia.
10. Inspect your feet and know when to visit a doctor
It’s also important to inspect your feet at least once every week. You can check them for cuts, bruises, bumps, pain, and cracked skin. Checking your feet regularly can help you treat issues and prevent problems in the future. This will also help you know when you should consider visiting a doctor.
If you notice something is wrong with your feet or if there’s any pain, do not attempt to self-treat them. If there’s any persistent redness, pain, discoloration, and swelling, find a podiatric physician and get your feet checked. A doctor will be able to help in preventing minor problems to turn into major ones.
These are some of the best tips we can give to ensure great foot health. By following these simple tips in your everyday living, you will be able to keep your feet healthy and pain-free.
Men can also consider wearing a great pair of chukka boots for comfort