Time to Show Your Feet Some Love

Valentine’s Day 2018 is now in our rearview mirror. Hopefully you took advantage of the day to do even some small gestures for your loved ones to show how much you care about them.

Some people might consider Valentine’s Day to be a “Hallmark holiday,” one that has simply turned into an opportunity for greeting card and candy companies to make money. Sure, there can be some profit from gifts we give our loved ones, but that doesn’t diminish the sentiment behind it.

If you don’t already do so, you might want to consider showing your feet and ankles a little love. Your lower appendages work hard to support your entire body and provide you with mobility and independence. In doing so, they endure tremendous force loads.

The good news is that your feet are not particularly “needy.” A little maintenance and care can go a lot way toward helping them feel and function their best for you. Remember, your feet have to last you a lifetime – so some maintenance is needed.

One of the key foundations of your body’s health—and, by association, the health of your feet—is to adhere to a healthy dietary plan. There are so many reasons for doing this, like preventing illness and disease and keeping your body systems operating at peak levels.

With regards to how nutrition impacts your foot health, we are talking about things such as:

• Bone health. With a total of 52 bones in your feet, your lower limbs are designed to carry the weight of your body. Help them stay strong by consuming plenty of calcium and vitamin D in your daily diet.
• Muscle strength. When people think about strong muscles, they might be quick to picture bulging biceps or broad shoulders, but the ones in the lower body are important too! In addition to enabling movement and mobility, they also take some of the burden off of the bones in your lower body. If you keep them strong by eating enough protein, they can stay strong and provide additional help.
• Weight management. As is the running theme here, it is easy to take feet for granted. This means we don’t often consider how much force we place upon them. You can help lighten their load, literally, by using your dietary choices to shed pounds. (Of course, you’re also bound to like seeing the results in the mirror as well!)
• Improved circulation. The feet and toes are farther from the heart than any other point on your body, so oxygenated blood from the heart already has to make quite the trip to deliver essential nutrients to your lower extremities. You can make it easier by choosing foods that do not clog up blood vessels, like whole grains, legumes, fruits, and veggies.
• Diabetes prevention. Diabetes can put feet at risk for serious medical issues like Charcot foot and dangerous foot ulcers. The disease is a growing threat, but you can take measures to reduce your diabetes risk by eating a healthy, well-balanced diet.

When you make a lifestyle change, especially a healthy one, it’s best to make things as easy on yourself as possible. Breaking things into little steps helps with sustainability and ultimately makes a big difference.

One of the best ways to provide your feet—and whole body!—with essential nutrients is to adopt a “clean eating” diet.

In this context, we aren’t using the word “diet” as some kind of fad or something you only do for a short period. Instead, we are talking about making changes to your dietary habits – what you eat on a regular basis.

Clean eating is simply one of the best possible practices since it is centered on eating food with the least possible amount of processing. For example, an apple pie certainly contains apples, but it is considerably healthier to eat an apple fresh of the tree.

Here are some helpful tips to get you started on your clean eating journey:

• Look for labels. Any food that is processed is required to have a label containing the ingredients. Your goal with clean eating is to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible. As such, the already-prepared items you purchase—which ideally are kept at a minimum—need to have a small ingredient list.
• Keep the chemistry in the lab! When companies process food, nutrients are stripped and unhealthy additives enter the picture. As you read the label, if you cannot pronounce the chemicals it contains, put the item down and quickly run away (not literally!).
• Prepare your own meals. When a corporation handles your food’s preparation, they are likely going to cut corners or manipulate taste buds with unnecessary salt or sugar. By cooking for yourself, you control what goes into meals and ensure that you are eating clean. This also allows you to unleash your inner Bobby Flay and put your own pizazz into the dishes!
• Eliminate refined sugar. Eating whole, unprocessed foods will bring loads of natural flavor to your diet. There is no need to ruin delectable dishes with refined sugar that only serves to add needless calories.
• Eat well, eat often. We will never encourage snacking on Twinkies and Snickers bars throughout the day, but five or six meals or snacks will keep you full. This is helpful in staving off the temptation to indulge in highly-processed junk foods.

In addition to loving your feet with healthier eating habits, you need to assess and consider your current levels of physical activity. If you aren’t getting at least 30 minutes of exercise 3-4 times a week, then it’s time to change that!

There are many reasons to engage in physical activity on a regular basis. Doing so helps you to manage your weight, have a strong body, and reduce your risk of disease. There are certainly other physical benefits, but exercise also provides mental and emotional ones like improved mood, stress relief, better sleep at night, and heightened cognitive performance.

Since working out on a regular basis delivers such a wide range of benefits, it can be easy to overlook the benefits of exercise for foot health, which includes:

• Improved circulation. Given the fact they are the farthest points on your body from the heart, a healthy blood flow is necessary for providing nutrients and oxygen. Exercise helps by promoting strong circulation.
• Limber muscles. Many common foot and ankle injuries that happen to soft tissues develop on account of tight muscles (which place excessive strain on tendons). Regular exercise keeps your muscles loose and reduce injury risk.
• Stronger bones. There is also a common overuse injury that can happen to bones – stress fractures. In this case, bones are unable to adequately handle force loads that can come even from just walking and standing. Stronger bones are better able to absorb forces without cracking.

(You probably noticed the overlap between these and the benefits from healthy eating. Well, this highlights how each complements the other – which is why both are so important.)

You have plenty of incentives to stay active for the health of your feet (and body, as a whole), but it’s important to stay safe when you are active. There is always a certain degree of injury risk when you work out, but you can help to manage this risk by easing into new activities and always taking the time to warm up and stretch prior to vigorous activity.

One of the easiest ways to get hurt is trying to do too much, too soon. Instead of giving 110% right out of the gate, start new activities or running programs at an easy level and then slowly build up the intensity and duration over time.

Additionally, take some time before getting into the core of your workout to elevate your heart level and prepare your muscles and connective tissues with a warmup and some dynamic stretches.

There are a handful of key tips for your health and safety when you start an exercise program, and one of them is to make sure you have proper footwear. So how do you do that? Well, the following tips will help:

• As with any shoe buying, the first consideration is when you go to buy your shoes. Make sure you shop in the late afternoon or early evening. Feet swell through the day (until around 4:00 PM), so a pair that fits at 9:00 in the morning will be tight if you go out for an evening run.
• When you buy shoes is important, but so too is where you buy them. Go to a store that actually specializes in running and athletic footwear. The staff at specialty stores tend to be more knowledgeable and provide better help if you have questions.
• Athletic shoes need to provide ample cushioning, while at the same time being structurally supportive. Arch support is especially important for reducing your risk of plantar fasciitis and other overuse injuries.
• Shoes that fit correctly are a must for all situations, but especially for running and sporting activities. Your heel needs to be firmly cradled (not excessively tight), toes need a little room on the sides (so they aren’t pinched), and there should be roughly a thumb’s width of space between the front of the shoe and your longest toe.

Even with your best efforts, there’s still always going to be a chance you will develop a condition or sustain a foot or ankle injury. (Just part of being a human…) In the event you or any of your loved ones do have a problem in the lower limbs, come see us!

Call Wilks Advanced Foot Care today at (541) 673-0742 for more information or to request an appointment. If you’d prefer, you can contact our Roseburg office online right now!