Steps to Take Care of Your Feet for Patient Education

Most of us tend to obsess over hair care, skin care and weight loss, but we seldom pay much attention to our feet. Our feet bear the brunt of our weight every day but they are usually neglected. Everyone loves a good foot massage, but foot care goes beyond the occasional massage and a massage certainly isn’t going to give you beautiful feet! The human foot is an evolutionary marvel because of its complexity. Your feet account for an astounding one-fourth of all the bones in the body and they also contain well over 100 muscles, tendons, ligaments and over 60 joints. Unfortunately, the complexity of this structure also makes it vulnerable to injury, stress and damage. Problems with the feet can have a considerable effect on your mobility as discomfort and pain in the feet will affect the way you walk and even cause you to restrict movement. The consequences of foot pain can be far reaching as it can even contribute to problems with the knees, hips and back. It should come as no surprise that there is an entire medical specialty concerned just with the health of your feet! Podiatry is the branch of medicine that specializes in foot care and treatment. In most cases however, such problems won’t arise and you won’t need the services of a podiatrist if you take adequate care of your feet.