The Basics Of Keeping Your Feet Healthy This Winter

Many people underestimate the importance of foot health. Even though ailments usually do not occur in the feet, it can seriously impair a person's functioning when they do. Healthy feet are very important in terms of staying active and just feeling healthy in general. If you neglect your feet and do not make sure that they are free of problems, you can end up experiencing pain that is completely unnecessary, as well as problems moving around in general. The good thing is that it is relatively easy to keep your feet healthy, compared to other parts of your body.

What to Expect

You need to keep in mind that in the winter, there are problems that will come up that do not normally come up. For example, skin and general tends to be dry and chapped during the winter. This can be very rough on the feet in particular, as feet can develop a great deal of dry, patchy skin. This may not be painful most of the time, but when the skin is so dry that it actually cracks and bleeds, it can make it hard for you to walk. For this reason, you should take preventive measures such as putting on lotion on a regular basis. If this is not enough for your feet, you may actually want to fill your socks with petroleum jelly and sleep in them one or two nights a week, in order to make sure that your feet are adequately moisturized.

Moisturize

While you want to keep your feet moisturized, you want to make sure that you do not overdo it and make it so that you create an environment that will be hospitable to fungal organisms. This can happen when your feet are moist and in shoes all the time, as this gives fungi very good environments in which they can grow and infect your feet. Though you want to make sure that your feet are not dry and chapped, you do not want them to be greasy and moist either when you are putting shoes on. A good compromise would be to make sure that you moisturize adequately, but allow your feet to be as dry as possible when you are actually going to be putting shoes on.

Feet Examination

Another thing that you can do that is actually more important than you would likely think is to examine your feet about once every week to make sure that there is nothing wrong with them. Look at the soles and between your toes to see any peeling or scaling in the skin. If this is present, it could be simple dryness that is due to the winter weather, but it could also be athlete's foot. Also make sure to check your nails for any discoloration, which could be indicative of toenail fungus. Toenail fungus often starts out as small yellow spots under the nails, and it eventually grows to the point where the toenail is no longer connected to the nail bed. If you have diabetes, you should be particularly scrupulous about inspecting your feet, because the disease will lead to a higher risk of infections and sores that take place on the feet. There are many conditions that can afflict the feet, including hidradenitis suppurativa, which is a chronic skin condition whose main symptom is lumps on the skin.

Essentially, it is very important to take care of your feet at all times of the year, but more so in the winter because of the additional risks of foot issues that take place during this relatively cold and dry time of the year. It may seem like a hassle, but it will be worth it in the end. The few minutes that you spend every day or week checking your feet could end up saving you a great deal of time and money that you would have spent on a serious problem that could have occurred without the checking.