Man Health: Take Care of Your Feet

Athlete's Foot

You probably already know a little about this as about 15% of the U.S. population has it.  In fact. it’s the second most common skin disease after acne.  Basically, athlete’s foot is a contagious fungal infection that makes your feet itchy, flaky and cracked. Some people are more susceptible to the infection than others, especially older men with an impaired immune system.  It’s often contracted in moist environments where multiple people are barefoot.  Showers, bathrooms and locker rooms are all good breeding grounds.  So you can either stop working out altogether, or you can just spray your feet with disinfectant and dry them thoroughly so the bacteria can’t take hold.  Promptly laundering things like towels, bedsheets and socks also helps.  Also, try not to wear shoes that make your feet sweat too much.

Bunions

Bunions are bone deformities on the joint between your big toe and foot.  As you can imagine, they can be quite painful.  The causes of bunions tend to be genetic.  Surgery is necessary to fix the situation if it’s serious enough.  But if it’s not that big a deal you can address the symptoms (though not the cause) with padded shoes, ice and some medications.

Ingrown Toenails

It is what it sounds like.  Your toenail starts digging into the nail bed and producing pain, swelling, pus, bleeding and heightened sensitivity.  This sort of thing usually happens if you cut your nails too short on the edges, or if you wear shoes that are too tight, or occasionally if you drop something heavy on your toe.  Soaking it can make it better, but when there’s blood or pus coming out, you want to go to a doctor.  Left untreated you could run the risk of a serious infection, and that could lead to something as serious as amputation.

So take care of your feet.  All of this can be summed up pretty succinctly:

1. Keep your feet clean and dry.
2. Blame your parents for the bunions.
3. Consult a podiatrist before small problems turn into big, ugly problems.