Barefoot Health
The approximate distance from the earth to the moon is 200,000 miles, a considerable length that took astronauts 3 days to get to while zipping along at 17,000 mph! I know the puzzled look on your face is asking me what this has to do with foot health. Well, it just so happens that a human will take 8-10,000 steps per day and over the course of a lifetime will walk 115,000 miles, or halfway to the moon. This fact alone should make anyone continue reading this blog about foot health.
Summer months are “get out of the house” season, with people travelling to parks, ballgames, outdoor events and beaches. Beach season brings to mind a friend of mine that used to make us all laugh because upon stepping on the hot sand, on our first visit to the beach of the season, with her bare feet she would scurry as fast as she could to her blanket, like a lizard on a hot Phoenix sidewalk. She would always say, “I don’t have my beach feet yet” and we would all chuckle.
Actually, walking barefoot in sand is a good promoter of foot health. Muscles, tendons, nerve endings and bones in the feet all get a significant workout when not surrounded by cumbersome shoes. Also sand is a great exfoliant, washing away dead and dried skin. In the western world shoes are worn 99% of the time while outside. Surprisingly 80% of the world’s population does NOT wear shoes on a regular basis. And their feet are better off for it. Even exhumations of ancients, living thousands of years ago, without shoes, showed better foot health than we have today!
Similar to a reflexology session, take a barefoot walk in sand. Every part of the body has reflex points located in the feet. Every uneven step you take in sand helps to stimulate all these reflex points. At first it may hurt a little, just a sign that that your feet need the stimulation they receive while walking barefoot.
Okay, you might say, but weather suitable for barefoot walking in most temperate zones only lasts from 10-12 weeks at most. What do I do the rest of the year for foot health? Pedicures are a wonderful path to healthy feet while stuck in heavy boots and pairs of socks. The benefits are numerous. The pedicurist can detect early signs of bunions, corns or fungal infections because they can see the bottom of your feet while you can’t. And the soaking of your feet during a session with essential oils and lotions moisturizes foot skin, making it less likely to get blisters. And of course any good pedicurist will exfoliate the feet with deliciously scented scrubs to rid the feet of cracked heels and dead skin.
Remember, your feet hold you upright for a lifetime! Keep them healthy and you may avoid potentially serious issues later in life that cause you to FOOT the bill haha.