How to Keep Your Feet Healthy

Did you know that most people will walk at least 75,000 miles by age 50? That's a lot, which is exactly why you need to take preventative measures to ensure your feet are clean, healthy and pretty. Here are four tips:

1. Take Care in Choosing Your Salon

If you go to the nail salon for a mani and pedi, there is a good chance that you could pick up a fungal infection there. This is particularly true if the therapists are reckless in maintaining proper hygiene. Make sure that they are using clean instruments for each customer. Since foot baths are a good environment for infectious conditions, it is important that you avoid shaving prior to your visit to the nail salon. This will reduce the chances of catching an infection. If you're extremely worried about catching an infection, purchase your own tools to take for them to use.

2. Grab a Bag of Frozen Peas

When you've been up and about on your feet all day, a warm, relaxing bath is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Unfortunately, there is one step you must do before you step into the warm bath: soak your feet in some cold water. If you don't want to soak them in cold water, you can use a bag of frozen peas. The ultimate goal here is to help reduce any swelling that has occurred throughout the day. For injuries, this can reduce recovery time by promoting healthy blood flow.

3. Soak Your Feet in Black Tea

No one wants smelly feet, so you may want to use your underarm deodorant on your feet. However, there are other ways of keeping the odor away from your feet. A few all-natural ways of doing this could include Epsom salt, baking soda, ginger, citrus fruits and black tea. Black tea specifically contains tannic acid, which is known keep your feet from sweating. This is important since your feet contain about 250,000 sweat glands together.

4. Keep Your Feet Moisturized

Make sure that you are keeping your feet properly hydrated day in and day out. As you age, your heels will begin to crack and the rest of your feet will become dry as well. This is due to the skin becoming thinner over the years. You should use a foot cream as soon as you get out of the bath while your skin is still a bit damp. While you can use regular lotion, a foot cream does better because it is typically heavier and can penetrate the skin easier.

While doing all the above will hopefully keep your feet healthy, there may come a time when you experience significant foot pain. This may be due to an injury or something else entirely. Whatever the case may be, you will want to see a podiatrist, such as someone from Podiatric Medical Associates PC, to have it checked out and treated.