Your Feet – Keeping Your Feet Happy and Healthy

Feet Are A Big Deal! Without your feet being in good health you are stuck in a very big way. When your feet hurt you feel it all over!

Most things don’t get our attention until there’s a problem.

Most of us take good health and being pain free for granted. We live in our body and use every part of our body to satisfy all our needs and desires. Some parts get more attention than others but some parts although very useful seem almost like a decorative add-on until we need to use them and can’t.

Our feet are a case in point. We walk on them, run on them, stand on them, kick things with them, decorate them and sometimes we even adorn them by fitting them into fancy shoes. Sometimes in user friendly shoes and slippers, sometimes in protective foot gear for hiking, working, running and other sports activities. Sometimes we wear shoes that are less utilitarian to make a statement. Elegant shoes to dress up, sexy shoes to flatter and get attention. All of this goes out the window when our feet are in pain, hurting or injured. At that point most people are happy to be barefoot and cannot stand anything to be on their feet.

We don’t give them a second thought. We just use them to suit ourselves but, as tough as they are, our feet are very sensitive. When they’re hurting, they instantly have your full attention. Even a grain of sand in an otherwise well fitting pair of shoes will get your attention, make you stop, take off your shoe and remove it before you walk any further.

The most basic thing anyone can do for their feet is to wear good fitting footwear. It needn’t be fancy. The main purpose of good footwear is to protect your feet and, there is more than one criteria to be considered in foot protection. Your shoes must support your foot from the bottom, side and top. From the bottom your feet need to be cradled so that have full support and contour to your foot so that all parts of the foot; the toes, ball, arch and heel of your foot are all supported and do not slide around inside the shoe.

The sides of the shoes must keep the foot on the shoe sole without exerting too much pressure on the sides of the feet or the toes. Problems arise when the toes get squeezed to tightly in the shoes to produce blisters, calluses and most painful of all corns.

The most basic thing anyone can do for their feet is to wear good fitting footwear. It needn’t be fancy. The main purpose of good footwear is to protect your feet and, there is more than one criteria to be considered in foot protection. Your shoes must support your foot from the bottom, side and top. From the bottom your feet need to be cradled so that have full support and contour to your foot so that all parts of the foot; the toes, ball, arch and heel of your foot are all supported and do not slide around inside the shoe.

Calluses On The Feet

The sides of the shoes must keep the foot on the shoe sole without exerting too much pressure on the sides of the feet or the toes. Problems arise when the toes get squeezed to tightly in the shoes to produce blisters, calluses and most painful of all corns.

Each of these are easily and naturally taken care of. To start if a particular shoe due to its fit is producing a blister, there may be no other remedy other than not wearing those particular shoes. However calluses are just the result of the skin thickening from pressure and friction against it. Castor oil is perhaps the simplest and likely the most effective thing to use on any callus. It penetrates and softens it and, with it’s anti-inflammatory properties tends to relieve most discomfort. Some people’s feet develop a thick hard callus on the sole that when it dries can crack, making walking extremely painful. Again, Castor oil packs work fantastically well. Castor oil is simply put onto a clean cotton or wool cloth and applied to the soles of the feet. It may need to be kept in place with a pair of old socks but by morning the soles will have softened. If they haven’t just do it again the for a few nights until they do. Repeat applications will only make them softer and smoother. It’s hard to go wrong with something so simple.

This thickening of the skin on the soles of the feet to the point that the sole thickens and cracks is said to be caused by the consumption of too much animal protein. If you are going to buy castor oil be sure to spend the extra few pennies to buy good cold pressed castor oil not solvent rendered pharmaceutical grade.

Corns On The Toes And Feet

Corns on the feet, especially around the toes, are a different matter altogether. Their nature is totally different from the merely thick, hard or dry skin of a callus. When pressure is put onto a corn, the pain can be so sharp and intense, it feels like you’ve stubbed your toe. You see stars and feel the sharp pain through out your body. They may not be life threatening but when your shoes rub against them or, if you should put pressure on your foot to press against them, it can feel like someone stabbed you in the foot. Misery is a good word to describe the feeling of being unable to walk properly because of the pain caused by a corn. They can be removed surgically or with some topical products but once in place they always seem to come back in time. It is possible to apply doughnut shaped bandages on them to keep pressure off but that is certainly no solution. There are natural ways of getting rid of them more or less permanently.

A very simple and completely natural solution is available and you can have it for only $3.00.

Save yourself the aggravation. Wear shoes and socks that fit comfortably. If the shoe styles get a little crazy or get too pointy at the toe, deciding whether you should wear them or not may be the difference between happy feet or a miserable existence with the pain from corns.

Foot Odor

Foot odor is for real. We had a friend in high school who’s food odor was so bad that when ever a few friends would visit and he was among them, he was always asked to keep his shoes on when he entered the house. It was that bad!! Some say that it simply caused by the sweat emitted from the feet and the bacteria that is spawns. This may be so, but given that everyone sweats but not everyone has smelly feet would suggest that sweating alone is not the issue. Given that there are other foot problems like athlete’s foot, inflamed big toe from gout and smelly feet suggests that there’s a little more to feet and their functions besides just carrying our weight.

The hands and feet were commonly used as part specific herbal therapeutic practices by herbalists and in European sanatoriums and spas. Foot baths and hand baths were a very important part of natural herbal healing for a very long time. Two of the more famous healers who used this practice successfully were Fr. Sebastian Kniepp and Maurice Mességué. Mességué used mainly herbal preparation successfully administered through hand and foot baths. Kniepp use herbal preparations in the same way but also used Hydrotherapy involving the entire body but also hand and foot baths of various kinds. The fact that their concentration on the hands and in this case also the feet were documented and so consistently successful means that the hands and feet are capable of both emit wastes and absorbing what ever they happen to be exposed to. Therapeutic baths in herbs and essential oils work for the same reason by the same principle.

Body odor has a lot to do with what is being eaten. Many who have been around anyone who has eaten garlic will note that the smell of the garlic will be on the person from the pours of their skin. If it is coming out of the pours, then it can only be in higher concentration in the parts of the body where sweat is even more concentrated or in the areas of the body where the sweat may be serving a more eliminatory function as in the areas where the lymph nodes are.

The feet have been recognized by natural healers to be a place that serves a secondary eliminatory function. It makes sense that this area should be able to do this because the legs are where the body stores most of it’s blood. Should the blood be carrying too much in the way of wastes, some will settle at the bottom of the legs. At that point that area, working within the general functions of the body works to remove those accumulating wastes before they can do more damage than they already are (neuropathy). By the time that waste finds itself in the are of the front of the foot at the toes it will not smell very fragrant.

Should these wastes be too many or in too great a concentration and the organs that should have metabolized them out of the body through the normal channels are unable to do this then the body uses this secondary means for getting rid of them. Often, neuropathy can set in to the point of gangrene but generally it is the large toe is more affected than the other toes when there is so much waste trying to come out that it will get inflamed or, even produce puss. This is called gout.

For these reasons, when problems like this happen on a much milder level it can produce the effect of restless legs, or restless feet.

These problems are most often due to foods that are being eaten. Usually, foods that are processed and the consumption of foods that consist mainly of animal protein. If better foods are habitually being eaten and if the organs are cleansed and restored to normal function a lot of this can be avoided.

As obvious as it may sound, what ever can be worn on the feet that will allow the feet to breath is helpful. Than means shoes that are all leather if possible. Open toed shoes where the weather will permit with cork or leather soles. Socks that are not made of synthetic materials.

Because of what everyone’s feet can naturally emit, for obvious reasons it is not wise to wear other people’s shoes.

Baking Soda works for Smelly Shoes

Everyone’s feet perspire out of necessity. It is a good idea to to sprinkle some baking soda into a pair of shoes when they are not being worn so that any foot odor might be absorbed and removed.

Kidney Functions in Relation To The Feet

The area below the hips is generally regarded in Traditional Herbal Theory as being governed by the Kidneys. The feet often feel the brunt of poor Kidney functions and it can work both ways. The Kidneys affect the feet and the feet can affect the Kidneys. Typically, when the Kidney functions are weak, having cold feet is a very common. On the other hand, walking around with cold, wet feet affects the Kidneys negatively. The worst combination is having cold, wet feet on cold concrete. Anyone with any sensitivity at all will feel it in the bones of the legs and even up to the Kidneys. Aside from the discomfort, by the cold affecting Kidney functions it is possible to create a Kidney infection through this. At present some health practitioners will laugh at this suggestion even though it was common knowledge less than 60 years ago.

Pain In The Soles Of The Feet

As an extension of what was being discussed just above in relation to Kidney functions is pain on the soles of the feet when getting out of bed in the morning. There is a very simple explanation for this. The Kidneys functions are many but, at the simplest possible level, they generally deal with functions that are water or liquid related. In healthy body liquids there needs to be a proper electrolyte balance. The Kidneys work with electrolyte minerals suspended in the bodily waters and blood to do such things as support the building of certain body parts like bone, nerves and brain tissue. However, when chemicals are introduced into the body through air pollution, air borne chemical exposure, processed and otherwise adulterated foods, the additives affect the minerals in the bodily fluids. Some, if not most artificial chemicals affect or weaken Kidney functions.

It is important to note that it is not normal electrolytes that cause a problem. It is the minerals that have been ingested in the form of preserving chemical salts in foods that tend to saturate the fluids that are problematic. Being in relative over abundance they are prone to falling out of solution from the liquids that are carrying them. Some of these minerals will deposit un-metabolized in the flesh, joints and other parts of the body.

During sleep the body functions are a little slower and the temperature tends to be a little lower; a perfect environment for minerals in a relatively saturated fluid to crystallize into minute forms. When this happens in the feet, the weight of the body pressing them into the flesh will cause pain that can sometimes be intense. At times a person can walk around all day with that pain in their feet. Or, at in some people the activity produced from normal body movement creates enough heat to dissolve and re-absorb them back into the circulating fluids. To remove that pain it is simply a matter of strengthening Kidney functions which is simply done with a Tincture of Sarsaparilla or any remedy that helps activate or increase kidney function or provides heat to the body that is kidney centered. By heat is not meant caloric heat but more the energy of heat which as a result of it’s increase will then produce a warming effect. This is a Traditional Herbal concept and largely never considered outside of that paradigm.

The point of this is not to stifle pain by suppressing it, it’s to allow the crystallized salts to go back into solution in order that they may be carried out through normal eliminatory processes. Cabbage poultices on the feet or kidneys would work too but, by an entirely different principle.

Please keep in mind that although sarsaparilla may be helpful for things like this. It and not other good natural remedies should not be used indefinitely. The cause of the problem should be addressed so that you are freed from needing any remedy at all.

Speaking of painful feet here is something that takes foot pain to a whole new level. In ancient China binding or wrapping woman’s feet was a practice intended to make women somehow more alluring. The origins are not certain but something like 4 billion women had their feet bound for about 1000 years leading up to the 20th century to make them appear as though their feet were very small. Thankfully, the practice has been outlawed. Looking at the feet of women who had had their feet bound, it must have been painful. This practice seems completely out of step and even odd given that China had developed so many wonderful natural healing sciences.

Reflexology

Given the nature of such things as acupuncture and the entire concept of energy flowing throughout the body in set patterns and that by the manipulation of that energy at specific points by needles or pressure it is possible to affect internal organs and systems, it is not hard to conclude that Reflexology is an extension of that Chinese tradition. Some relate it back to the Egyptians and Greeks which is possible but not likely since trade and the exchange of ideas with the Far East was not uncommon in both Egyptian and Greek times.

Reflexology deals with the body through the feet. The basic premise of reflexology as a simple and logical extension of acupuncture suggests that on the sole of the feet there is a complete mapping of the body’s entire anatomy. Iridology and the acupuncture of the ear seem to have laid out the exact same concept into a working model for diagnosis and treatment.

The premise of reflexology and concepts like it go back very far and like all the healing arts is rooted in the mysticism of existence. The belief that the human being is a microcosm and as such a reflection of a greater archetype, the macrocosm, is an ancient concept. To extend this idea; the human being being made in the image of a Supreme Being has within it the same infinity of that Being reflected in all its parts through inter-connectivity. The palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the iris of the eyes, the structure of the ear and the face all have mappings of this consistency that have been used to accurately diagnose the state of the internal organs and all parts of the body.

Some are skeptical of reflexology which shouldn’t be given too much mind as some only regard and reserve importance only to themselves and their own thinking to the exclusion of all others. A massage therapist does to the muscles of the body what a reflexologist does to the soles of the feet. When we are massaged, the knots and tensions we hold in our muscles is released and the circulation is improved. Anyone who has ever tried reflexology will have, at the very least, had a great foot massage with the benefits of a much fuller relaxation than a simple rubbing of the feet could not have produced. By pressing and massaging different parts of the feet as one would with different parts of the body, the areas where there is stasis or stagnation are softened and “released” of their tension.

Given this, when it comes to the feet, care being taken to assure that the feet are taken care of is just one more simple thing that can be done as a matter of maintaining good health through prevention.

Common Sense Foot Care

The feet, like every other part of the body need to be kept clean and even groomed from time to time.

Given the nature of the foot, it’s relation to other organs and the ancient practice of such things as reflexology. It is not too far fetched to treat the feet with some respect and tender loving care. Starting with good footwear to protect the feet from injury or extreme cold. Toe nails need to be cut or they can dig into the other toes causing calluses, corns, pain or even bleeding. A professional pedicure is more a matter of pampering than necessity but, everyone needs their toe nails cut and trimmed. Because of what the toes can sometimes emit, the skin and cuticles around the toes can thicken. Most will find it much easier to cut their toe nails and clean their hardened cuticles after a shower or a bath as the nails and skin are much softer and easier to cut and clean.

You do not need anything fancy to cut your toe nails but, the right tools will certainly help. A regular scissor will be clumsy. Having a good quality pedicure set helps cut your nails cleanly, without hurting any else. The best tools for doing your own Pedicure are made in Germany. They may cost a few bucks more but, they will last you a life time and serve you well.

There are also all kinds of natural and electric hand held buffers to help buff off hardened calluses. A good compress of good quality castor oil is simplest, cheapest and perhaps the best way of softening hardened foot skin. Castor oil is also excellent for sprains or bruises of all kinds especially on joints – that includes ankles, feet, knees, sacrum, elbows, or hands. Give it time to work. It will bring the bruising to the surface and with it also the soreness.

It is hard to believe that something this simple can work so well. Warmth helps the castor penetrate, making it work much faster. Castor oil has been used therapeutically for centuries in Europe. In the Americas it was Edgar Cayce who further championed its use. The Heritage Store Brand is the same grade of Castor Oil that He recommended.

When feet are sore they can be soaked in warm water of, if it happens to be sunny and warm outside, exposing them to the sun always feels good – provided you don’t sunburn them, that is. You can also have them massaged by a significant other with some St. Johnswort Oil.

St. Johnswort oil is meant to be applied to the skin. It is anti-inflammatory, cartilage and tendons love it and it soothes soreness of joints. In Europe there are several products made with St. Johnswort oil exclusively for the feet. In North America all that is available is the St. Johnswort Oil.

Most of what has been said here is common sense. Some things may not have been considered by some but, most of it is pretty simple, straightforward, workable and affordable.