Keep your feet merry this holiday season

During the holidays, we've got shopping, travel, parties and a whole lot of running around, and it can all add up to tired, aching feet!

Causes of tired, aching feet

• Research has shown that fallen foot arches, or over-pronated flat feet, causes a person to use more energy when walking, resulting in greater fatigue at the end of a day than people with normal feet. 
  
• Strenuous walking or standing for long periods has an obvious effect on your feet.
• Other factors include ill fitting, poorly padded shoes, tight socks or stockings and tight garters. 
• Reduced blood circulation to the ankles and feet also causes tired aching feet.

Contributing factors to tired and aching feet

• Age: as we age, the natural thick pad on the soles of our feet begin to thin. Additionally, our feet widen and flatten, and the skin on our feet also becomes drier. In some cases, foot pain in older people may be the first sign of arthritis, diabetes, and circulatory disease.
  
• Gender: Women have four times as many foot problems than men, usually due to ill-fitting shoes like high heels. As a result, severe foot pain is a major cause of general disability in older women. Pregnant women have an increased risk of aching feet due to weight gain, swelling in their feet and ankles, and the release of certain hormones that cause ligaments to relax.
  
• Dehydration: your feet have approximately 250,000 sweat glands, and can excrete as much as a quarter of a liter of moisture each day. Therefore, it is important to remember to drink plenty of water, throughout the day.

Treatment and relief for tired, aching feet

• Elevate your legs: lie on the floor and put your feet up on a couch or bed for about 15-20 minutes. This is a way of clearing the lymph modes and the water retention - a likely cause for your aching feet.
• Massage your feet: Women like it because it works! Release tension, increase circulation and rejuvenate the skin after a long day on your feet.
• Soak your feet: Use tea tree or peppermint oil in warm water either in a basin or you can use a foot spa if you have one.
• Wear smart shoes: If you know you will be on your feet all day, wear comfortable shoes with arch support and a padded sole. Sometimes, the celebratory high heeled shoes must come out for the holiday parties. If you are wearing high heels:

Bad

Better

• choose shoes with higher front platforms, the relative angle of the foot is reduced causing less pronation
  
• choose shoes with a less severe point - rounded toes over pointy toes
• limit the time spent in heels - wear them when you know you won’t be walking or standing for too long

• Change your shoes: Switching styles of shoes alternate where pressure is applied to your foot.
• Reduce friction: Use friction block sticks, or Vaseline or chapstick on your foot where you are prone to get blisters and corns.
• Wear orthotics: orthotics control over-pronation and support your arches, taking away one of the major causes of tired, aching feet. Learn more.
• Wear medical gradient compression hosiery: Compression stockings, or Medical gradient compression hosiery, promotes better venous flow (blood moving in the veins back to the heart) which helps control swelling, varicosities, foot and leg fatigue. Learn more.
• Exercise your feet: Exercising your feet can help to keep them healthy. It tones your muscles, helps to strengthen the arches, and stimulates blood circulation.

• Rise on your tiptoes: Stand with feet parallel. While holding on to a steady piece of furniture for support, rise slowly up and down on your tiptoes. This exercises the leg muscles and helps strengthen the foot muscles.
  
• Extend the sole of your foot while sitting down. Extend and stretch the foot in as straight a line with the leg as possible. 
  
• Rotate the feet while sitting. Extend feet one at a time and rotate slowly at the ankle, as if trying to draw the largest circle possible with the big toe. Do this first in one direction, then the other.
  
• Move your toes: Remain sitting with feet resting on the floor. Move the toes up and down. This will decrease internal rotation of the legs and the stretching on the leg muscles, thereby reducing tired, aching legs.

Don’t let painful feet ruin your holidays, and don't let your extended health benefits go to waste! Book an appointment with Dr. Eve today. 

Bonus: Receive 10% off Footwear at New Balance stores with a referral from Dr. Eve.