These 8 Foot Indicators Can Reveal Your Internal Health

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Highlights:

• Cold feet may signal vascular disorders or diabetes
• Persistent pain or ulcers can indicate serious health concerns
• Nail changes could reveal infections or other underlying conditions

The saying goes that the eyes are the windows to the soul but could the feet be the window to your health? To most of us, our feet are not much of a concern apart from when we are doing our nails or getting a foot massage. But just think that examining feet could tell a lot about the general health state of a person.

Human foot is recommended as the most complicated structure of the body which people fail to care until it either becomes painful or in a specific kind of injury, Head podiatrist at Banner Health Center Dr. Joseph Dobrusin. "But in fact, these things that are considered our appendages, tell a lot about our health."

‘Did You Know?
Your feet can indicate systemic health issues like diabetes and vascular disorders. #foothealth #medindia’

Let us explore into some common signs that indicates concern in foot care.

1. Cold Feet and Toes
Possible medical issues: Peripheral artery disease, diabetes and vascular disorders.
Cold feet can sometimes be a lot more than just the feeling that you need thicker socks. Infrequently, feet and toes may feel cold due to an inadequate blood supply to the limbs caused by PAD (Peripheral artery disease) and diabetes. PAD narrows the arteries but diabetics can have high blood sugar which injures other blood vessels decreasing blood flow to the feet.

2. Burning Foot Pain
Possible medical issues: Neuropathy, Diabetes mellitus, peripheral arterial disease
If you experience burning sensation in your feet, it may mean that you are suffering from neuropathy, a disease well known to affect people with diabetes. Other factors may be fungal diseases such as athletes' feet, or peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) (1^✔).

3. Bigger and Painful Big Toe or Foot
Possible medical issues: Gout, arthritis, cellulite, deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
Slight swelling might be attributed to wearing wrong shoes or standing for long periods, severe and painful swelling on the other hand can be a sign of gout, arthritis, DVT - a dangerous blood clot (2^✔).

4. Thickening or discoloration of the nails of the toes
Possible issues: Fungal nails, injury, psoriasis, anemia, melanoma
Overgrowth, thickening, or deformations of the toenails may cause discoloration, pitted or ridged surface, suggesting some underlying diseases. Complicated nail fungus is a primary cause, but other causes that cause change in the toenails include psoriasis, anemia, and melanoma (3^✔).

5. Ulcer or Sore That Won't Heal
Possible issues: Diabetic foot ulcer, venous ulcers, skin malignancy
Ulcers on feet that refuse to heal could be due to cold or numb feet - a typical sign of diabetes or peripheral neuropathy. In rare occasions, a sore that fails to heal is also indicative of skin cancer thus it is also advisable to check any ulcer on your feet (4^✔).

6. Getting dark line under the toenail or bruise.
Possible issues: Melanoma is the most common subtype of skin cancer, while subungual hematoma is blood accumulation under the nail.
The presence of a dark streak or bruise just under the toenail might be an injury or it could even be melanoma skin cancer. If the discoloration doesn't go away, one should seek medical attention (5^✔).

7. Intolerance to pain during walking without any injury.
Possible issues: stress fracture, plantar fasciitis and tendinitis
Pain in feet, without having a history of an injury may be due to stress fractures, tendonitis or plantar fasciitis. Also, other disorders, which can be evidenced by musculoskeletal manifestations, are arthritis or diabetic arthropathy, when pain occurs while bearing weight (6^✔).

8. Numbness or Tingling in Feet
Possible issues: Peripheral neuropathy, B12 deficiency spinal stenosis
Minimal episodes of numbness and tingling feet are quite common and not a cause for alarm. When the tingling sensation or numbness stays for few minutes, is recurrent, should be checked by a doctor for neuropathy, vitamin deficiencies, neurological disorders among others.

While most of the time the foot symptoms you might experience are probably nothing serious, it is never wrong to consider these symptoms as worth a visit to the doctor. Immerse them with love and compassion, because they may very well be your body's road map.

"If you will pay attention to your feet, you will see they have been speaking to you all along." References:

1. Peripheral Artery Disease - (https:my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17357-peripheral-artery-disease-pad)
2. Gout - (https:www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gout/symptoms-causes/syc-20372897)
3. Mycotic Nails - (https:my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21712-mycotic-nails)
4. The Diabetic Foot - (https:www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK409609/)
5. Subungual Melanoma - (https:my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/subungual-melanoma)
6. Stress Fractures of the Foot and Ankle - (https:orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/stress-fractures-of-the-foot-and-ankle)
7. Peripheral neuropathy - (https:www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/symptoms-causes/syc-20352061)

Source: Medindia

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