By the time the average person reaches the age of 50, their feet have logged about 75,000 miles. And that’s just an average — an active person likely logs many more miles than that.
To get a car to 75,000 miles or more, you have to give it a little TLC, and the same is very much true for your feet and ankles.
Since April is National Foot Health Awareness Month, our team at Aesthetic Podiatry & Sports Medicine Center, under the direction of Dr. Mariola Rivera and Dr. Lisa Shah, thought it would be a good time to review some best practices for your feet.
For the more than 40 million Americans with diabetes, daily foot care is imperative, and this starts with a daily inspection and cleaning.
From our point of view, this practice is also a good one for everyone, diabetes or no, given how much we use our feet. So, before you go to bed each night, give your feet some love and inspect, clean, and moisturize them.
We can’t say enough about making sure your shoes fit properly. A good fit is one that holds your feet snugly, but also provides enough room for your toes to spread out.
Your feet work best when the workload is spread evenly across each foot. When there’s an imbalance, issues like bunions and hammertoes can quickly develop.
To ensure your feet are well-balanced in shoes, invest in custom orthotics. These inserts are molded to your feet and your needs, and they provide the right kind of support to keep your feet functioning well.
As important as fit is getting the right shoe for the job. You wouldn’t kick a soccer ball in flip-flops or go for a walk in heels. These are exaggerations, but you get the idea — wear the right shoe for your activity and your feet will thank you.
When you cut your toenails, cut straight across so the edges of the nail don’t dig into the surrounding flesh.
Ingrown toenails might not be the end of the world, medically speaking, but they’re painful enough to send millions of people to the doctor — 20 out of every 100 visits to a medical provider for foot pain is for ingrown toenails.
There are certain problems you should never ignore, and foot pain is one of them. If you have nagging pain in your foot that shows no signs of improving, or it gets worse, please come see us sooner rather than later.
Continuing to move around on painful and damaged feet will likely only worsen the problem and make treatment increasingly difficult. A better way is to have us check you out earlier on so we can get you the correct diagnosis and set you on the path toward pain-free movement.
With a little effort on your end and the right foot health team in your corner, your feet should log many more miles long into the future.
If you have any foot health questions or you have an issue you’d like us to check out, we invite you to contact us online or by phone at one of our offices in Purchase or White Plains, New York, to schedule an appointment.
