Foot Facts - revealed!

MORE FOOT FACTS:

• Walking Barefoot can cause plantar warts. The virus enters through a cut that could be so small you won't notice it.

• Feet are like a building's foundation. An unstable underpinning creates havoc for the structure it supports. When the 26 bones in your foot are misaligned, chances are that the body will follow suit.

• 75% of us will experience a major foot malady in our lifetime. Women have four times as many foot problems as men.

FOOT GYMNASTICS

A lot of foot pain can be avoided (and alleviated) by strengthening and stretching the muscles in your feet and legs. Do these exercises in bare feet:

• Heel Raise/Toe Point - While seated, (1) rise onto the balls of your feet, (2) go up onto your tiptoes, (3) curl your toes under. Hold each position for 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times every day. Good for people with hammertoes, toe cramps, and arch pain.

• Towel Scrunches - Sit on a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Place a medium-size towel on the floor in front of your feet. By scrunching your toes, pull the towel, inch by inch, into the arch of your feet. Do one to three times daily. Good for strengthening the whole foot.

Body Facts - amazing!

The human body is a machine that is full of wonder. This collection of human body facts will leave you wondering why in the heck we were designed the way we were.

• Scientists say the higher your I.Q. The more you dream.
• The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm.
• You use 200 muscles to take one step.
• The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man.
• Your big toes have two bones each while the rest have three.
• A full bladder is roughly the size of a softball.
• The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades.
• The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
• It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
• The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds.
• Men without hair on their chests are more likely to get cirrhosis of the liver than men with hair.
• At the moment of conception, you spent about half an hour as a single cell.
• There is about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
• Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.
• The enamel in your teeth is the hardest substance in your body.
• Your teeth start developing (in your gums) 6 months before you are born.
• When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils dilate, they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate.
• Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people.
• Your thumb is the same length of your nose.

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.