Why good foot care matters

Healthy, pain free feet have a big influence on your daily life. Yet feet are often the forgotten part of good personal care: they sit inside shoes, you rarely see them, and as long as they do not complain you do not think about them. That is exactly why it is worth paying attention now and then.

1. Your feet carry everything

An average adult takes thousands of steps a day. With every step a multiple of your body weight lands on a small surface. That goes well for decades, but it is no surprise that callus forms on the busiest spots and that the skin there dries out faster.

As long as that load is evenly spread you barely notice it. As soon as a pressure point appears, that changes. You unconsciously start walking differently to spare the pain, which shifts the load to places that were not built for it.

2. Foot complaints travel up the body

Someone with a painful corn under the ball of the foot places that foot differently. After a week the knee starts nagging, after a month the lower back. The cause is not in the back, but forty centimetres lower.

That is no reason to see a foot problem behind everything, but it is a reason not to let foot complaints linger. A corn or a painful crack is solved in one treatment; a changed walking pattern that has lasted months is not.

• Dry your feet, including between the toes
• Moisturise daily with a urea cream
• Cut nails straight, no shorter than the toe tip
• Alternate your shoes every day

3. Feet give early signals

The skin of the feet often says something about your general condition. Skin that suddenly becomes much drier, nails that change colour, small wounds that heal slowly: those are signals worth taking seriously.

A pedicurist sees your feet regularly and close up. A change is therefore noticed sooner than when you glance at them yourself now and then. Whatever stands out should be discussed, and sometimes it is a reason to see your GP.

4. You can do a lot yourself, up to a point

Much of the daily care you can handle perfectly well: drying properly, including between the toes, moisturising every day, cutting straight across and wearing shoes that give room. That is the basis and the basis does a lot.

Where doing it yourself stops is with removing callus using sharp tools, with a corn, with an ingrown nail and with cracks that are already open. That is where the risk of a wound lies, and a wound on the foot simply heals more slowly than elsewhere.

5. Half an hour that pays off all week

A treatment does not take long, but you notice the effect with every step for weeks afterwards. Nails that no longer press against the shoe, no more callused rim that stings, and skin supple enough not to tear.

At Pedicure Patty you also get advice suited to your feet: which cream, how often, and what to look out for. That way the treatment keeps working until your next appointment.

In practice this subject belongs with standard treatment and medical treatment. There you can read how Patty works, or you can request an appointment straight away.

Further reading: what does a short treatment cost?, what does callus removal cost?, what does a corn treatment cost?.

Frequently asked questions