(soft music)
is Dr. Eveline Tan
from Northwestern Medicine.
Now Dr. Tan, can the health of our feet,
be a good indicator of our overall health?
- I think that feet can give us a good indication
of overall health in general.
And a lot of times is something that nobody looks at,
especially when you even just go
to see your primary care physician,
lots of things I think go undetected.
The foot is probably,
the most under-recognized part of our health.
- Can our feet to give us warning signs
that it's time to see a doctor?
- So people look at a callus
as something as simple as a overgrowth of skin.
That actually tells you a lot.
That there's an imbalance in their foot.
Whether it be a biomechanical imbalance
or a structural imbalance, calluses shouldn't be there.
I think a lot of times people neglect to say that
you know, their foot is dry and it's actually not dry skin.
It could be actually an underlying skin disease
or a deformity.
When people look at their nails,
they don't realize that actually,
it can be listed as a pulmonary concern
and or underlying dermatological concern
of bigger consequences, that again goes unrecognized.
- Well, I'm a shoe lover.
So I am guessing a huge part of caring for our feet,
all starts with a good pair of shoes.
- I think the wrong pair of shoes,
can cause something as a skin deformity.
And or it could also cause a stress fracture,
abnormal wear in which it actually sets your knees,
your back or your hip off.
Shoe care is definitely a huge part,
to making sure that your foot health is in good shape.
- When we're looking for those shoes,
what should we be looking for?
- When you're looking for shoes,
the biggest thing is you actually want to buy a shoe
at the end of the day, your foot is the most tired,
it's going to be the most swollen,
and it's also going to be the most fatigued in general.
So if the shoe fits great then,
that she was going to be your best shoe ever.
- When we think about our toenails,
how should we care for them?
the health of your feet
because if they become ingrown, you get an infection.
So toenails in general, cut them straight across,
take a nail file to cut off round the edges.
But don't kind of dig down toward them.
If you're finding that you're digging down towards them,
a lot of times you're actually causing an ingrown toenail.
And if something doesn't look right,
that's when you definitely want to make sure
that you come in and visit somebody.
- What about pedicures?
Are they good?
Are they beneficial for our feet?
- So what I recommend to my patients,
and this is kind of what I've done,
and importantly, again, this is just an opinion from me.
I'll tell patients, get your own set of tools
and therefore risk of infection
and or spreading infection to somebody else
is minimized, because that is your own set.
- Toenail polish.
Is that okay to wear all the time?
Do we need to let our toenails breathe?
- So I'll always tell patients, take a nail polish break.
I know it's hard to do.
When you do get a pedicure,
you want to take off your nail polish,
before you go back and get a pedicure.
So when you take that break,
you'll notice that the nail,
after you take that nail polish off,
almost looks like it's white or a little bit decayed.
And it's really because that whole top layer
has been stripped and over-processed.
So again that break is a great time
to make sure that you just look at that health of that nail,
so something doesn't go undiagnosed.
- Should we be doing specific exercises for our feet,
like we would do with any other part of our body?
- Foot exercises, I actually strongly encourage.
So stabilizing into your feet,
making sure you have good posture,
making sure you have good foot health,
is a huge part of being able to carry you from A to B.
Quarter of your bones are actually in your feet.
And within that all those small little muscles,
that no one ever really looks at,
and they tend to neglect,
those muscles have to be strengthened.
Yoga is great.
Also doing barre.
So again a lot of that barre class,
you're going to be doing barefoot or with glottis.
And it helps you stretching out those toes
and kind of grounding in
and feeling all those small little muscles work.
- So making sure our feet stay healthy,
will help us live a healthier life.
- Mobility and your quality of life,
come from being able to move.
And if your feet can't take you there anymore,
then I think that's a concern that you need to address.
The key is to make sure,
that you are able to do what you want to do,
most importantly pain-free and keep you going.
- Dr. Tan, thank you so much for joining us.
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