Though we don’t often give them all that much conscious thought, our feet matter just as much as any other part of our bodies – if not even more. After all, it is our feet we rely upon to get us from place to place. It’s our feet that steady us, that allow us to move with relative ease all throughout the world. Our feet let us walk, run, and dance, and our feet our important to our overall health.
Of course, this means that we must take care of them not only to prevent various health problems from developing in relation to them, but to treat those health problems should they ever develop. After all, such health concerns are far from uncommon, at least for the general adult population of the United States. The data gathered on the subject more than supports this claim, as will be shown in the paragraphs that follow.
For one thing, there are many different issues that can impact the overall health of your feet. Hammer toes, for instance, are quite common, with up to 200,000 cases reported by the Mayo Clinic each and every year (and that’s just in the United States, let alone elsewhere all throughout the world as a whole). Hammer toes are certainly not life threatening, but any foot care specialist can tell you that they can impact your overall foot health and can cause a considerable amount of pain, to boot. Therefore, hammer toes should always be looked at by a podiatrist who can provide you methods to relieve foot pain and improve your overall foot health – which is again more important than many people actually realize.
In addition to hammer toe, plantar fasciitis is another incredibly common one of many foot and ankle conditions possible, as nay foot and ankle specialist will readily tell you. In fact, it is so very common that it is a condition that impacts as much as 10% of the total population. This is also a condition that can negatively impact your overall foot health and will likely lead to the need for foot pain treatments. Fortunately, these treatments, with the aid of podiatry specialists, can be impactful and effective when it comes to restoring the overall foot health that you are able to experience.
Of course, there are even bigger threats to your overall foot health out there, and these two must be managed well and guarded against as much as it is possible. For instance, diabetes, when not properly managed, can lead to serious problems with your foot health as well as with the health of your other extremities. In severe cases, diabetic people have even needed to have their feet amputated. And diabetes is quite common nowadays, with more than 30 million people diagnosed and living with diabetes by the time that the year of 2017 had come to a close, according to data that was gathered by the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
Living with diabetes is not easy, but properly managing your diabetes can prevent complications from arising with your foot health – or any other aspect of your health, for that matter. Once you get the hang of things, managing diabetes is often quite a bit simpler and easier than many people actually realize. After all, diabetes is a condition that can be managed well with proper attention to detail – and proper medical supervision and check ins on a regular basis.
In some cases, diabetes can even be prevented entirely, therefore negating the need to worry about your foot health (at least when it comes to the impact of diabetes). While type 1 diabetes can’t be prevented, you can certainly prevent yourself from ever developing type 2 diabetes. In most cases, this will simply mean living a healthy lifestyle, eating well and exercising often and avoiding to many unhealthy foods (though many things, of course, are fine in moderation). For many people, prediabetes will never develop into full blown diabetes if such steps are taken as soon as the problem is ever noticed.
In the end, your foot health is important. There are may ways that you can work to take care of it.
