Now that summer is here, Seattleites are ready to grab their step counter, hit the trails and roads, and maybe even start running. The city is a great place to run and urban trails are waiting for you outside your door.
We all know that running and walking is extremely beneficial to your overall health. When done regularly, running or walking can decrease mental stress, assist in weight loss, and strengthen muscles.
In order to keep you running like a pro, it is very important to take care of your feet. Our feet need to support our body weight and the force of impact while running. We ask so much from our feet so let’s take care of them!
Here are three quick tips for healthy feet:
- In the morning, give yourself a quick foot-check and look for any cuts, sores, swelling, or infected toenails. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Take care of any issue early before it gets worse.
- Remember to moisturize them with lotion or cream daily. Take care NOT to moisturize between your toes. You want that area dry to prevent infections and other nasty stuff.
- Lastly, give those nails a trim when needed. This helps to prevent the nail from growing into your skin.
If you’re getting your 10,000 daily steps in and giving yourself a daily foot-check but are having foot pain, you might have developed a corn or callus or other foot issue.
Corns and calluses are thick hard patches on the skin of your feet. They might cause pain when wearing shoes or when walking. They are usually caused by excessive rubbing from shoes that are too tight. Mild corns and calluses will usually go away on their own but if you are having pain you should visit a podiatrist where they can treat corns and calluses and recommend ways to prevent them from recurring in the future.
Other foot issues that runners sometimes experience include plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, stress fractures, extensor tendonitis, adductor and abductor hallucis problems. We’ll talk more about these in future blog posts.
In the meantime, get out there and run! Enjoy the sun and all that our region has to offer with the comfort of knowing that the podiatrists at Minor & James Surgical Specialists will be here if you need us.
