10 Great Tips to Keeping Your Feet Healthy and Happy

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Maintaining our feet healthy and clean should be our everyday priority. Keeping your feet healthy and happy is very easy to do and can be done in the comfort of your home. Your feet take care of you, so take care of your feet! Below are great tips to keeping your feet healthy and happy all year-round.

Keeping Your Feet Healthy in Ten Easy Steps

1. Wear properly fitted shoes

Your shoes should not hurt your feet; on the contrary, you should protect your feet and work on keeping your feet healthy. Your shoes should feel comfortable and provide you the support you need to keep you going through your busy day. Properly fitted shoes should provide a half-inch of space between the tip of your shoe and your longest shoes; whereas, improperly fitted shoes can lead to painful foot problems.

2. Keep your feet clean and dry

Foot hygiene is extremely important to maintain. This is something that we should keep up on a daily basis and shouldn’t be avoided. Every day when you bathe, soak your feet in soapy water and use a soft towel, loofah or sponge to scrub the dirt away. Once you finish scrubbing your feet, don’t forget to dry your feet from excess moisture since it can promote the growth of bacteria and fungi. Great foot hygiene helps in keeping your feet healthy and happy!

3. Cut/trim toenails correctly

If you noticed your toenails are a bit too long, it might be time to cut your toe nails! When you are cutting your toe nails, avoid cutting too close to your skin or drastically rounding the corners of your nails. Your nail edge should grow past the flesh of your toe. Cut your nails straight across and don’t cut too low at the edges.

4. Avoid sharing shoes

Stick to wearing your own shoes and socks to help keep your feet healthy. Sharing shoes is not a good idea as fungal infections can be spread through other people’s shoes and sharing socks.

5. Wear breathable shoes

Allow for your feet and toes to breathe a little! Open shoes such as comfortable sandals and leather shoes allow air to circulate to keep your feet dry and healthy.

6. Avoid flimsy flip-flops

Cheap flip-flops that most people wear lack the proper support you need. They tend to hurt your feet because they are flat and don’t offer the cushioning nor provide the support. As a result, when you wear flimsy flip-flops, they pull on their plantar fascia, causing your foot pain and arch pain. However, if you prefer to wear flip-flops, stick to purchasing supportive flip-flops with arch support, deep heel cups and cushioning.

7. Wear supportive flip-flops or sandals in public places

The fungi that cause most athlete’s foot thrive in warm moist environments. Therefore, walking barefoot in public places such as locker rooms and pools opens you to infection. The best way in keeping your feet healthy is by wearing supportive flip-flops in shower rooms, locker rooms, pools, and all public places

8. Avoid going barefoot

Walking barefoot both indoors and outdoors can be very tempting and we all probably have done it before. However, you should consider kicking this bad habit as walking barefoot can impact your foot health. You should resist the urge of walking barefoot as it leaves you vulnerable to infections and injuries.

9. Examine your feet for foot problems

Try to perform a foot examine on a regular basis or at least once a week after your shower or bath. When drying off your feet, take a close look at your soles and look for any scaling between your toes or peeling areas, discolored toenails and anything else that may seem abnormal to you. If you happen to notice any of the below foot problems such as ingrown toenails, nail fungus, blisters, corns, or cracked heels; seek treatment immediately. Addressing foot problems at an early stage can help in keeping your feet healthy and happy.

10. Hydrate your body

Drink plenty of fluids, especially during hot days. Drinking plenty of water will keep you hydrated and can help minimize swelling in our feet that could occur due to the heat. Carry a bottle of water everywhere you go and drink as much as you need. In addition, consider swapping your sugary drinks for water.

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