The Feet - foot care

 THE FEET

BECAUSE FOOT problems are so common, and because so many of them are the result of misunderstanding, improper care, neglect, and a kind of fatalistic acceptance of them as inevitable and unavoidable, the feet deserve and are here getting a special chapter of their own. 

Actually, except for the common cold and tooth decay, no human ailments are more prevalent than foot troubles.

As many as 80 percent of adults have one kind or another in their lifetime

 And while a huge sum-some $2 billion annually-is spent on foot powders, sprays, pads, supports, and potions to correct foot ailments, much of the money is wasted. 

ENGINEERING MASTERPIECES 

In terms of anatomical engineering, the feet are-and, indeed, have to be -masterpieces. When you stand, your feet carry the dead weight of your body. Walk-and if you're average, you will walk some 65,000 miles in your lifetime-and you impose upon them a force of hundreds of tons a day. In walking just one mile, a 150-pound man brings down on his feet a total work load of 132 tons, or 264,000 pounds. 

The feet have to absorb the impact of body weight and keep the shock from traveling up the network of nerves and joints throughout the body. In addition, they have to balance the body, propel it, and working against gravity gets blood flowing up the legs back to the heart.

To accomplish all this, you have 52 bones in your feet, one fourth of the total number in the body, and they are encased in an intricate system of some 200 ligaments, 40 muscles, and millions of muscle fibers and blood vessels.

 The biggest foot bone is the heel, which is one of the seven tarsal bones; the other six tarsals arch in front of it and meet five long bones, the metatarsals, whose heads make up the ball of the foot. A major part of the body load is borne by bones in the rear of the foot; the rest is spread among the long bones in the forepart of the foot. As you walk, body weight comes down on the heel but is quickly transferred to the ball, and from there some goes to the toes which, by their spreading action, prevent turning on the ankles and aid in takeoff for the next step. When something goes wrong with the feet, the trouble isn't necessarily confined there. 

Foot discomfort may cause a shift in gait or change in posture. Other parts of the body, including the spine, may be thrown out of kilter to cause other troubles. Some low back disturbances, joint complaints, and even headaches have been blamed on the feet.