3 Reasons to be Thankful for Your Feet
At NY Foot Health, we want to wish all our patients a happy Thanksgiving. We also want to remind you to include your feet on that list as you think about all the things you’re thankful for. In case you haven’t given your feet much thought recently, here are 3 amazing things to make them worthy of your gratitude.
Your feet enable you to live your life to the fullest. Okay, let’s start with the most obvious—your feet get you where you need to go every day from the moment you first put them on the floor in the morning until you climb into bed each night. We often take that fact for granted until feet hurt or suffer an injury. The average person walks between 2 and 5 miles a day. During a typical day, the force on your feet from walking can total several tons—or the equivalent of a fully-loaded cement truck. (Fun fact: women walk on average 3 miles more a day than men.) In addition to squatting, running, and standing on tiptoes, to get that turkey platter off the top shelf that your feet are instrumental in accomplishing.
Your feet are incredible structures. Did you know that a quarter of all the bones in your body are in your feet? There are 52 bones in a pair of feet, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles, and tendons. Your feet also have more nerves per square centimeter than any other part of your body and 250,000 sweat glands capable of producing up to half a pint of perspiration in a day. Pretty impressive, right?
Your feet function as an early warning system for the rest of your body. Many systemic diseases and disorders that affect your entire body may first show warning signs in your feet. Among them are diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, arthritis, and kidney failure. Swelling, pain, tingling or burning, changes in skin or toenail color, and hair loss may all be pointing to another condition. That’s why it’s important to inspect your feet regularly and bring anything unusual to the attention of your podiatrist. Don’t currently have a podiatrist? Find one in your area using our online directory.
So be good to your feet and don’t ignore pain or other uncomfortable symptoms. To learn more about foot care and podiatric conditions, contact us and subscribe to our free e-newsletter.