• Disclosure & Privacy
  • Soupmaker Club
  • Newest Toy Reviews
  • Rolling Back The Years
  • High Protein Cooking

Scottish Mum

Blogger Aberdeen, Blogger Scotland, Health and Lifestyle Blogger Aberdeen, Lesley Smith Blogger, Aberdeen

  • My Recipe E-Books
    • Soup Maker Recipes: Book 1 – 60 Soup Maker Recipes
    • Soup Maker Recipes Book 2 – 30 More Tasty Soups
  • Food
    • Food Tips & Safety
    • High Protein
    • Low Carb
    • Soup Maker Recipes
    • Video Recipes
  • Recipes
    • Baking & Sweet Treats
    • Drinks & Shakes
    • Fish
    • Froothie Recipes
    • Jams & Preserves
    • Low Carb
    • Mains
    • Pancakes
    • Pasta Dishes
    • Pressure Cooking – Instant Pot
    • Puddings
    • Puree for Children / Dementia Care
    • Salad
    • Sandwiches
    • Sides & Vegetables
    • Slow Cooking
    • Soup Maker
    • Soups
    • Spicy and Aromatic
    • Stock
  • Lifestyle
    • Adoption
    • Blogging Tips
    • Charity
    • Family
    • Health and Wellbeing
    • In The News
    • Parenting
    • Rolling Back The Years
    • Special Needs
    • Technology
  • Contact

Health and Wellbeing

Taking Care of our FEET

Did you know there are 26 bones and more than a hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments in our feet?   Don’t forget the 33 joints that hold them all together.

This picture isn’t my feet, but look at them, and consider just how much work they do each and every day of our lives.

Feet

Each one of those bones, tendons and joints can cause us problems if we ignore our feet totally.

Our feet have to support our bodies, so problems with our feet can very quickly make life very difficult for us in our daily walking.  It can also affect how our knees, hips and back feel.

Looking after our feet is something that we should all pay more attention to.  It’s far too easy to ignore them as they spend most of the year hidden away from view in socks, tights or enclosed shoes, especially up here in Scotland, as we don’t often have foot revealing weather to enjoy.

What can we do to look after our feet?

Washing

It’s not enough just to wash them when you have a bath or shower, unless you have one every morning and night.

Wash them daily.  Washing our feet at night can remove any build up of grime that can cause them to be infected.

Wash them with soap and water.  Soap and tepid water will help remove the grime that can irritate our feet.

After Washing – Comes Drying

Do you skim over the areas between your toes?  Make sure you dry your feet properly, as the skin can easily become irritated.

Athlete’s Foot is a common condition that can very easily take hold if feet are not properly dried.

Cut Toenails Regularly

Cutting your nails straight across at the top can help reduce the risk of ingrown toenails, which often start when toenails cut at an angle push into the skin.

Socks and Tights

Change your socks or tights daily, to ensure you have clean clothes next to your clean feet and keep foot odour to a minimum.

Swimming Pools and Changing Areas

The potential for athlete’s foot and verrucas increases when you are using public showers and changing rooms.  Keep a spare pair of jelly sandals or fitflops for walking around in areas where there are public shared areas.

Remove Hard Skin

The hard skin that tends to look white when it’s dry on our heels or big toes can be removed with a pumice stone or foot file.

High Heels

Wear them as infrequently as possible.  If you are going out for a special occasion, think about wearing sensible shoes to get there and get home again, which keeps the wearing of high heels at a minimum.  Sadly, after plantar fascitis that persisted for over 2 years, I can no longer wear high heels unless they are spongy crepe soles, but I wish I had not worn heels so much when I was younger.

Common Foot Conditions

Foot pain isn’t something that anyone should ignore.  It is a common problem and as there are so many potential causes of pain, even from something as simple as an ingrown toenail, it’s important that you see your GP for pain or discomfort.

There are some things we can do to help ourselves for the most obvious possible problems.

Shoes

Take a long and hard look at your shoes.  Do they fit properly?  Is there enough space for your toes?  Is there enough support where you need it?  I spend most of my life wearing FitFlop shoes nowadays as I can walk for miles in them, but spare a thought for me when I had plantar fascitis and the only shoe option I had for day to day wear was a pair of Crocs.

Sprains

It’s possible that muscles or ligaments have been strained.  We often speak about going “over our ankle,” if we stretch or slip.  It can be by accident, or by doing more exercise than our bodies are used to, and the muscles or ligaments are stretched or twisted.

Gout

The condition that is often giggled about, but is no laughing matter for those who suffer from it.  We associate it with living life to excess with rich food and drink, but how true is that?

Gout is essentially a form of arthritis.   Waste Uric Acid builds up in the form of crystals and usually forms in the toes.  The toes become inflamed to the point of causing pain, which can be severe.

Verrucas

One of my kids and I suffer from these regularly.  They are usually small wart like growths on the soles of our feet and they can be painful if they are on pressure points where our feet take the weight of our bodies.

I’ve found verrucas most painful in my heels and the ball of either foot, simply due to the pressure put on those spots.  I’ve tried shop bought and prescribed verucca creams, patches and ointments, as well as the chemist bought freeze sprays, but nothing gets rid of mine until I visit the GP and she uses her stronger freeze spray a couple of times.

Bunions

These are swellings at the bottom of our big toes that can be very painful to walk on.   The big toe begins to point towards the other toes and makes the big toe joint protrude into a bony lump.  One famous fashion designer who wears very high and pointy shoes seems to have a very painful looking bunion on her small feet.

Being careful about wearing inappropriate shoes might help with the pain.  I am ever grateful I don’t suffer from bunions as they look so very painful.

Plantar Fascitis

This is a foot condition I have had the misfortune to suffer from.  It is damage to the tissue that runs along the sole of the foot.  It causes pain in the heel and can be as a result of wearing down the foot tissues by exercise or strenuous activities involving the feet.

It took two years for my plantar fascitis to be relieved.  Mornings were incredible painful when I placed my foot onto the floor for the first time that day and standing up from any rest period was excruciating.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket
  • Email
  • Print
  • Instagram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype
  • Telegram

Related


1 Comment

Advertisement

My Soup Maker E-Books

Advertisement
 

« Breadmaker Softies Recipe – or Bread Rolls, Baps, Burger Buns, Morning Rolls – Whatever you call them.
Soup Maker: Potato and Onion Soup Recipe – 1.6 Litre »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Advertisement

Get my latest news to your inbox - FREE

Advertisements




My E-Books on Amazon

Advertisement

Links and Disclosure on Scottish Mum

This website contains affiliate links and banner adverts, mainly labelled advertisement.

Opinions are always my own and are not brand influenced. Links to brands are not guaranteed, & are at my discretion.

Posts which are commissioned by/in collaboration with brands, supported by brands, or reviews, will be labelled as such.

A wee note, and I am so sorry I have to add this to my website.

I sincerely thank the huge amount of readers that show up weekly to read my wee blog, and this note doesn’t apply to the majority of you.

I’m not perfect, and this website is free to browse, read, and use my recipes.  It’s a personal website, not a big business.  Sometimes I make mistakes.  If you find one, I’d like you to let me know so I can fix it, but please don’t call me names.

Also, please don’t use my photographs anywhere else, as I have taken most of them myself.  With some photographs, I’ve paid to be able to use them or been given the right to use them by their owners.

If you wish to use my photographs, please ask.

 

Get my latest news to your inbox - FREE

Giveaways

Giveaway & Competition – Hot Stone Massage in Aberdeen, Worth £70

Giveaway: Win one of the toughest cables on earth, worth £25. Ends 10 Feb 16

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

Copyright © 2023 ·

Copyright © 2023 · Divine Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience.
We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can leave if you wish. Rejecting cookies will take you to google.com, leaving the scottish mum blog website. Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT