Put your best feet forward

Published May 15, 2007 at midnight

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Feets, don't fail me now - it's almost summer!

For months, I've cocooned my dogs in thick woolen socks or hip waders or blocks of cement. Maybe I'm being optimistic, but since it's May, I'd like to think it's safe to jackhammer off the winter footwear.

But Dr. John McGarry, a Denver podiatrist, says warm weather means dangers are afoot.

"Usually three things happen. You start to get more active, which can predispose you to overuse kind of injuries," says McGarry, past president of the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. "The shoe gear changes and tends not to have as good support; you wear more sandals and flip-flops that can cause straining and problems with the feet. And we see a lot more foreign-body injuries - people step on stuff in the summertime."

So watch it. And before your feet get out of hand and into trouble, take a good, hard look at them. Do you see lumps, bumps, flaking, cracking, a veritable cemetery's worth of dead skin? If Stephen King wrote a book about feet, would yours be the ones scaring everybody to death?

Do you feel pain on the bottom, pain on the ball, pain in the heel, pain on the sides? Are your piggies screaming bloody murder all the way home?

Perhaps most important of all, at least from everyone else's perspective - do you smell something you wish you didn't? Is it an odor reminiscent of a lump of old Gorgonzola?

Never fear, Cheese Feet: You can be helped! And it won't even be necessary to saw off your feet and make a bunch of new friends who will affectionately call you "Shorty."

Here are some common problems and possible fixes:

A rogues' gallery of foot issues

Some common foot problems and solutions

Corn

Problem: Small areas of thickened skin that develop on the top of the side of the foot due to excess rubbing, often from poorly fitted shoes.

Solution: Try a product containing salicylic acid, which can dissolve the corn and the dead skin on top of it. Then trim or peel away the dead tissue.

Blister

Problem: Small areas where fluid has collected under the skin. Caused by shoes that are too tight or cause friction or rubbing.

Solution: Leave them alone - don't break them. Cover with a bandage until they heal. If the blister breaks, clean the area and apply a bandage.

Bunion

Problem: Characterized by a hard bump at the base of the big toe on the outer edge of the foot. There's often redness, pain or swelling, and movement of the toe can be restricted.

Solution: Apply a bunion pad around the bony prominence, and wear shoes with a wide, deep toe box. If your bunion becomes inflamed and painful, apply ice packs several times a day to reduce swelling. Try anti-inflammatory meds like ibuprofen. Stretching exercises can sometimes help. Check with a doctor for advice on a bunion splint or cortisone injections. Surgery can sometimes be necessary.

Ingrown toenail

Problem: Skin presses against the nail of the toe, resulting in irritation, pain and possibly infection.

Solution: Cut your nails straight across to avoid ingrown toenails. If one develops, soak the foot in warm water three or four times a day and keep the foot dry during the rest of the day. Wear comfortable shoes with adequate room for the toes. Consider wearing sandals until the condition clears up. Try ibuprofen or acetaminophen for pain relief. See a doctor if the condition fails to improve or gets worse.

Plantar fasciitis

Problem: Inflammation of the bottom of the foot that most often causes pain in the heel. Ill-fitting footwear can cause it, but often there is no obvious cause.

Solution: Cushion your aching heel by placing a quarter-inch foam pad in the heel of all your shoes, or try wearing a heel cup or over-the-counter shoe insert. To reduce inflammation, ice your heel for 15 minutes after activity and take anti-inflammatory pain relievers. Stretch your foot before you get out of bed in the morning. See a doctor if pain persists.

Hammer toe

Problem: A deformity in which one or more of the smaller toes curl downward into a clawlike position. Usually caused by ill-fitting shoes. The second toe is most often affected.

Solution: Relieve discomfort using a toe pad. Wear shoes with roomier toe boxes. A doctor might suggest a shoe insert, splint or exercises.

Athlete's foot

Problem: A common fungal infection that can cause itching, burning and cracked, scaly skin between your toes. It can spread to your toenails.

Solution: Try an over-the-counter athlete's-foot treatment. Wash feet often and dry thoroughly. Dust foot powder in shoes and socks.

Nail fungus

Problem: Fungus can cause your nail to discolor, thicken and develop crumbling edges. Brought on by the same damp, warm conditions that foster athlete's foot.

Solution: Prescription meds include Lamisil, Sporanox and Diflucan taken for six to 12 weeks, but results can take up to a year to see. Antifungal drugs also may cause side effects ranging from skin rashes to liver damage.

Anatomy of a green foot:

• Stink foot? Try a 30-minute soak nightly for a month in warm water infused with a handful of Epsom salts, baking soda or table salt. Powdered alum sprinkled in socks and shoes helps keep odor in check, and a schmear of antiperspirant on the soles of the feet daily can help with excessive sweating.

• Fungus ain't fun, so try soaking your nails in a solution of one-third vinegar and two-thirds water for an hour once a week or 15 minutes a day. Or daub undiluted vinegar on the nail with a cotton swab every night. Another great remedy: Vicks VapoRub, applied to the nail and cuticle, twice a day for at least six months or until the infection clears.

• For cracking, scaly heels, the Microplane foot file, at right, is a sure-fire, low-tech way to fix a heretofore-unfixable problem. It turns flaky feet buttery smooth. $20 to $30 at microplane.com. Tip: Rub in some Vicks VapoRub afterward.

• Be kind to your nails and the environment with odorless, water-based, nontoxic Honeybee Gardens WaterColors Nail Enamel. Comes in non-peel and peel-off versions in 16 colors. $6.99 a bottle at honeybee gardens.com

• OPI's 200 shades of nail lacquer, now DBP- and toluene- free, are at nail salons and beauty-supply stores. OPI.com

• Give your feet a peppermint treat with Cosmic Dance Cool Peppermint Foot Scrub. Ingredients include tea tree oil and peppermint leaf, both considered to have antifungal qualities. Go to cosmicdance.org.

• For dry, cracked cuticles or discolored nails, try Max Green Alchemy Cuticle Rescue - cruelty-free, certified vegan, no synthetic or petrochemicals, and it contains grape seed oil, lavender essential oil, jojoba seed oil, clovebud and sweet almond oil. Yummy! $14 at maxgreenalchemy.com

• For itchy, dry, sweaty, achy, sensitive dogs, there's Max Green Alchemy Sole Rescue FootBalm. Smooth and freshen with a powerful combo of shea butter, kokum butter, jojoba oil, castor oil, evening primrose oil, olive leaf, tea tree and aloe vera. $20 at macgreenalchemy.com

Put on:

• Brooks athletic shoes with MoGo. brooksrunning.com

• Splaff Flopps, handcrafted sandals made from recycled race-car tires and bicycle inner tubes. splaff.com

• Trailblazer Hemp walking shoes, with a 100 percent hemp upper double-stitched to a durable recycled sole. grassrootsnaturalgoods.com

Fast foot facts

• 25 percent of U.S. adults admit their feet stink up the joint

• 35 percent say they place more importance on comfort than style when buying shoes

• 34 percent of women visit salons or spas for pedicures, and more than 25 percent developed some type of foot problem as a result of their pedicure

• 77 percent of women ages 18 to 49 spend less than $200 a year on shoes

• About 42 percent of women who earn less than $30,000 a year are on their feet six hours or more a day

• 27 percent of U.S. women ages 18 to 49 hate or dislike their feet; 57 percent like or love them American Podiatric Medical Association:

Best shoes

Top athletic shoe picks for women from Fitness magazine:

• Hiker: Salomon Elios ($90)

• Tennis player: Fila Punto II ($90)

• Cardio queen: Asics Gel-FX ($80)

• Walker: Adidas Echo Plus ($65)

• Kayaker/water enthusiast: Mion Current Sandal ($100)

• Cyclist/Spinner: Specialized BG Riata Women's Sport MTB Shoe ($85)

• Beginning runner: Brooks Glycerin 5 ($110)