Foot Facts - uncovered!

• Feet may come in pairs, but they are frequently unmatched, sometimes differing as much as a full shoe size. Unfortunately, shoes are sold in pairs, not mix-n-match. Always buy shoes to fit the larger foot.
• Sherlock Holmes was the master of discerning limps, gender, social standing and foot disorders from footprints.
• People take an average of 10,000 steps in a day, adding up to about 115,000 miles in a lifetime - enough to go around the planet more than four times.
• Reflexologists’ believe that the feet mirror the body, with the toes relating to the head, the ball of the foot relating to the chest area, down to the heel which relates to the hip or pelvic region.
• There are 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of feet. Sweat glands in the feet excrete as much as half a pint of moisture a day.
• The feet of a person weighing 130 pounds absorb 500 pounds of pressure with every step. This impact reaches about five million pounds of pressure each day.
• Shoes are important to women since they generally average 10 miles a day, outdistancing men who average only seven miles a day.
• Feet are said to be the "mirror" of an individual's health. Arthritis and circulatory disorders often reveal their initial symptoms in the lower extremities. The foot also gives clues about a person - height, weight and gait.
• Your two feet contain 52 bones, a quarter of all bones in the body.
• Each foot also contains 33 joints, 107 ligaments and nerves, 19 muscles, tendons and blood vessels.
• Most Americans log 75,000 miles on their feet by age 50.
• A 150 pound person walking one mile exerts the equivalent of 63 1/2 tons, 127,000 pounds - on each foot.
• Feet are strong enough to support up to four times the body's weight during high impact activities, yet sensitive enough to detect a grain of sand.
• Your feet mirror your general health. According to conventional medical wisdom, conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, nerve and circulatory disorders can show their initial symptoms in the feet - so foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems.
• About 60-70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of diabetic nerve damage, which in severe forms can lead to lower limb amputations. Approximately 56,000 people a year lose their foot or leg to diabetes.
• Only a small percentage of the populations are born with foot problems.