Happy Feet

Pre-Summer Foot Care - Part 3 – Athlete’s Foot

The facts are startling: 70% of people will be affected by athlete’s foot in their lifetime, 45% of people with athlete’s foot will suffer from it in episodes for more then 10 years, and seven out of 10 people with athlete’s foot are male.

Athlete’s foot, technically called tinea pedis, is a skin disease caused by a fungus. The hot weather and foot perspiration that athletes typically encounter can make athlete’s foot a common problem. The combination of a warm and humid environment in your footwear, excessive foot perspiration, and changes in the condition of the skin combine to create a setting for the fungi of athlete’s foot to begin growing. Athlete’s foot usually occurs between the toes or under the arch of the foot. Typical signs and symptoms of athlete’s foot include itching, dry and cracking skin, inflammation with a burning sensation, and pain. Blisters and swelling may develop if left untreated. When these blisters break, small, red areas of raw tissue are exposed. As the infection spreads, the burning and itching will increase.

Treatment includes keeping the feet clean and dry; frequent socks changes, antifungal medications, and foot powders. An antiperspirant may also help those with excessive foot moisture.

Check your local drugstore or pharmacy for a complete line of athlete’s foot antifungal ointments, creams, liquids, powders, and sprays. See your doctor if your feet do not respond to treatment with over-the-counter medications. If the fungus returns, alternate medications since it can sometimes build up a resistance to a particular fungicide.

Pre-Summer Foot Care - Part 2 – Toenails

Summer means sandals and flip flops, and going barefoot. All of those means your toes are in full display – which means your toenails should be well cared for. By that, I do not mean they have to be polished, but clean and trimmed.
     How hard can it be to trim your toenails? In all the years I have been patching feet, I have observed that untrimmed toenails are the number one cause of problems leading to toe blisters and black nails. Socks will catch on nails that are too long or that have rough edges. This puts pressure on the nail bed, leading to blisters under the toenails, at the tips of the toes, or painful toenails as they are pushed back into the cuticle. Nails that are too long are also prone to pressure from a toebox that is too short or too low. The toenails in this photo belong to an ultrarunner who successfully completed the Atacama Crossing, a seven-day foot race in Chile. Even at the end, here toe looked great.
     Toenails should be trimmed regularly, straight across the nail—never rounded at the corners. Leave an extra bit of nail on the outside corner of the big toe to avoid an ingrown toenail. After trimming toenails, use a nail file to smooth the top of the nail down toward the front of the toe and remove any rough edges. If you draw your finger from the skin in front of the toe up across the nail and can feel a rough edge, the nail can be filed smoother or trimmed a bit shorter. Remember though, the shorter you trim your nails, the greater the likelihood that you will experience an ingrown toenail. Conversely, nails that are too long can rub against the front of your shoes and catch on your socks, which can lead to a black toenail, wear holes in your socks, cut into other toes, and crack the nail when you run downhill. Shoes that are too tight in the forefoot or too short can cause the nail to press into the sides of the toe.
     Use a regular nail file or emery board from your drug store, you know, those cheap “use it a few times and toss it” file. Better yet, invest a few bucks in a nice metal file that will last a long time and serve you well. If you need clippers, there are regular large clippers and for thick nails, and nippers and scissors made exclusively for toenails. If your local drug store or pharmacy doesn’t have them, check out FootSmart.com for a great selection.
     A little bit of care in toenail trimming goes a long ways in preventing toe blisters and black toenails, which means they will look good in sandals, flip flops and barefoot.

Pre-Summer Foot Care - Part 1 Callus

Summer is right around the corner and with it comes more time spent outdoors. Activities like running, walking, hiking, adventure racing, backpacking or fastpacking – all stress our feet. Now is the time to start pre-summer foot care. We’ll talk about this in several parts. Part one will talk about calluses.

     Calluses are controversial. A callus is thickened skin caused by recurring pressure and friction—usually a sign of ill-fitting footwear. Many people feel calluses help protect their feet from blistering. They can – but they again, they might not. The problem is that when, not if, you blister underneath calluses - these deep blisters are almost impossible to drain and treat. The hard callus rubs against any pressure point in your shoe (side of the heel or forefoot, ball of the foot, bottom of the toes, etc.) and when the rubbing has continued long enough, and/or with enough pressure, the callus begins to move against the deep layers of skin – and you have a blister.

     My suggestion is to work at reducing your calluses with creams and file them as smooth as possible. Some small callus is okay, but I would keep them fairly soft and thin. The thicker and harder they are, and the longer it takes to reduce them.    

     Buy an inexpensive callus file at your local drug store, or a pumice stone, and file the callus after showering or bathing. You also should also purchase a callus cream to apply after using the file.

     A bit of foot care before summer will help your footwear fit better and your feet feel more comfortable.

Features to Avoid in Shoes? Excuse me…

I found the article in the Pedorthic Newswire Issue # 228 a few days ago. The title of the article was “The Proper Fit: What athletes need to know about shoes.” It first appeared in a newspaper’s website in Ontario Canada and was written by a certified pedorthists.

     The article started by telling the reader, “When selecting a running shoe, or any shoe for that matter, there are a few important features to look for.” It then went on to talk about a strong heel counter, a strong shank, the best time of the day to shop for shoes, wearing the same socks that you plan to walk or run in when trying on shoes, and measuring your foot every time you purchase new shoes. This is all great advice. I have talked about this stuff for years.

     It was the next paragraph that I did not agree with. It read, “Features to avoid: Airbags, liquid gel, "shocks," "rebound," "bounce," although aesthetically pleasing, are characteristics that should be avoided. These features can create greater instability with walking and running if any biomechanical abnormalities are present within the gait cycle. Also, if there is a breakdown of the airbag, liquid gel, "shock," "rebound," or "bounce," the shoe itself becomes unstable, which places the foot in an undesirable position, leading to pain and discomfort in the feet, legs and lower back.”

     Excuse me… I have owned many pairs of Nike Air running shoes with their little air bags. I love them. Several are many years old and still hold their shock absorbing value. Not to say one of the airbags could never blow or be punctured by a thorn, but I’ll take that chance. The same goes for the gel and other shock absorbing devices. If there were problems, I know the shoe companies would rework the shoes.

     Here is an image from a patent website for United States Patent 6562427. It shows a schematic for a shoe airbag. It’d give you the full description but it would probably bore you. Here is just a bit of the text from the abstract for 6562427:

     “An airbag for shoes has a plurality of elastically compressible cylindrical cushion members which are interconnected in a predetermined array by a connecting plate. The cushion members/connecting plate combination is encapsulated in a casing. The cushion members, connecting plate and casing are joined together to form an integral unit. The cushion members have a spiral groove formed in their outer surface which increases their compressibility during the initial phase of compression.”

     Shoes with these features are valuable to those who need them. I think most of us are smart enough to know if the shoe suddenly felt “funny” or bottomed out because of a system failure, we would stop wearing the shoes. I will continue to buy any shoe that fits well and works on my feet – regardless if they have any one of the aforementioned features. I hope you will too. After all, my main goal is to keep my feet happy.