The season is upon us: time to bring those feet out of hiding, freshen up your pedicure, and slip into the flip-flops that have been languishing in the back of the closet since September. Former mainstays of the beach and the locker room, flip-flops have come into their own in the past few years, and can be seen everywhere from the runway to the White House.
Flip-flops originally had a specific purpose: protecting the bottom of your feet from hot sand or keeping them away from icky germs when showering at the gym or wandering around poolside. They were never meant to function as daily footwear, and the popular and cheap plastic-and-rubber type you pick up at the drugstore provide nothing in the way of support and stability.
Like anything else, flip-flops in moderation are fine. But here are a few reasons you might want to limit them to poolside or the beach this summer.
Arch enemies
Flip-flops almost always have flat soles, with no shaping to offer support for your arches. A lack of arch support can cause overpronation, which is a fancy podiatrist word for when your foot rolls inward when you walk, putting excessive pressure on the sole and inner part of your foot. Overpronation can result in a world of hurt, from bunions to tendonitis to shin splints. And if you’re not already flat-flooted, habitual flip-flop wearing could actually cause you to become so.
Protect and serve
Flip-flops barely cover your foot. This can lead to painfully sunburned tootsies, but more seriously cuts, insect bites, broken toes, and worse. Emergency room physicians see a rise in foot injuries during the summer from people doing yard work in flip-flops, walking the dog, playing frisbee, and plenty of other activities better conducted in more protective foot gear. If nothing else, you’re prone to blisters between your first and second toes, not to mention the propensity to stub your toes, leading to dislocations, broken bones, and even severing of the digits.
Falling for you
Flip-flops offer no support for your ankles or feet, and this can lead to injuries that might not have happened in sneakers. They come off your feet easily, causing you to trip, slip, or fall, and lack of protection and support make you more likely to injure more than your dignity in the resulting spill. Broken ankles, stress fractures, and ruptured tendons are just a few of the risks; flip-flop wearers should beware of driving, using escalators, and running, just to name a few activities that have led to serious injury.
Germ warfare
One team of researchers found more than 18,000 bacteria hanging out on just one pair of flip-flops, including germs that cause respiratory illness and serious skin infections. While it’s true that the soles of any shoe come in contact with a lot of gross stuff on a regular basis, think about how much of your foot is exposed in flip-flops — and how often you might touch them with your hands to keep them on your feet. Combine that with the greater likelihood of injury to the foot while wearing flip-flops, and you have germ-infested recipe for infection on your hands — or, in this case, on your feet.
Walk this way
Researchers at Auburn University found that wearing flip-flops changes the way you walk. While the difference is subtle, when you wear flip-flops regularly, it can lead to serious problems in your ankles, heels, and toes. You know how you scrunch your toes to keep your shoe on when you walk in flip-flops? That motion stretches the plantar fascia, the connective tissue that runs from your heel to your toes. Repetitive stress in this tissue can cause inflammation and pain in your toes and the bottom of your feet, along with heel spurs. Walking in flip flops also causes shorter strides and puts more force on your feet as they hit the ground. This also affects the way you move your hips and legs, and can result in hip and lower-back pain as well, potentially resulting in long-term damage.
Credit to Naked Health !!! Wave !!!
Athlete’s foot or foot fungus and toenail fungus affects people of all ages. It is itchy and ugly and can destroy your toenails. Here are six tips to keep your feet fungus-free and beautiful.
Foot fungus can be hard to treat — the best strategy is to keep your feet from getting fungus in the first place. Always wear flip-flops in places like public showers, locker rooms, and pools (walking on your tip-toes across the locker room floor won’t protect you). Don’t share towels, shower sponges, shoes, or socks. Wash your socks in hot water every time you wear them.
Keep your feet dry. You should wash your feet everyday, including between the toes (you know you don’t). Then dry your feet completely, including between the toes (you know you don’t); you can even use a hair dryer before putting on your socks. If you have sweaty feet, consider using a foot antiperspirant to minimize wetness. Wear loose fitting, synthetic socks that allow your feet to breathe and wick moisture away.
Apply an antifungal foot cream to your feet and toes everyday. Any over the counter antifungal cream will work; I recommend generic clotrimazole cream because its effective and a lot less expensive than other antifungals. If you don’t like applying cream, then try antifungal foot sprays such as Tinactin® (tolnaftate) or antifungal foot powders such as Desenex® (miconaozle).
The best treatment for nail fungus is oral antifungal pills. However, pills, such as Lamisil® (terbenifine) or Nizoral® (ketoconazole), can have serious side effects and require blood tests to monitor for complications. Combining oral antifugals with a topical antifungal cream everyday gives you the best chance of a cure. If you want to treat toenail fungus at home, then consider applying Vicks VapoRub® to your nails everyday. You can also try soaking your feet in a solution of one part Listerine with one part white vinegar. The alcohols in the Vicks VapoRub® and in the Listerine® might help eliminate the fungus. A third option is to try applying tea tree oil to your nails everyday. None of these home remedies are likely to cure toenail fungus, but they can help improve the appearance of your nails and are relatively harmless. Unfortunately, if your toenails are completely infected with fungus, there is less than 50% chance you will have a complete, long-lasting cure. Even with the strongest antifungal treatments available, only 50-70% of people clear their toenails; and those who are cured become reinfected 50% of the time!
Keep your toenails clean and trimmed short. You can scrape the crumbly material from under your nails, but do it gently. Vigorous scraping won’t clean out nail fungus and will cause your nail to lift off your toe or to fall off all together. Remember to wash your hands after every time you touch your feet or nails and to clean your toenail clipper and nail files with alcohol before using them again.
If you have successfully eliminated your foot fungus or toenail fungus, remember that you still are at risk of getting the fungus again. Consider getting new sneakers, sandals and socks, and apply an antifungal foot cream or powder to your feet everyday to prevent a regrowth of fungus on your now fungus-free feet.
Post written by Jeffrey Benabio, MD.
Malaria mosquitoes utilize CO2 from exhaled air to localize humans from afar. In the vicinity of their preferred host, they alter their course towards the human feet. Researcher Remco Suer discovered how female malaria mosquitoes use foot odors in the last meters to guide them to their favoured biting place. Suer, who is defending his doctoral thesis May 9 at Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, sees possibilities to disrupt the host seeking behaviour of the malaria mosquito.
Check it out !!!
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According to a new study from University of Benin many patients with diabetes fall short on foot care and foot wear.
Failure to perform recommended foot care and wearing inappropriate footwear can set diabetes patients up for foot ulcers.
Ulcers are painful and potentially serious.
They can sometimes lead to amputation.
Uno Momento !
One Moment was inspired by indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest , who painted the soles of their feet with natural latex for protection.Designed by Spain’s Figtree Factory Studios for the active lifestyle , the skintight slip-on is ergonomic, ventilated, and ultra-compact when compressed.These shoes look sprayed-on to you, you’re not far off the mark.
One Moment is made from 100 percent biodegradable plant-based plastic, so you won’t worry about clogging up the landfill with your old shoes.
And just like latex coatings that the Amazonian native used, your OneMoment will also return to the environment, degrading at least 80 percent of the way after six months in the ground
Another plus?
Each pair cost only €5-€7.
Oldest shoe in the world archaelogists have discovered in a cave in Armenia. The 5,500 year old shoe dates to around 3500 B.C. and is approximately 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), and about 400 years older than the oldest parts of Stonehenge The area was used in rituals since ~8000 B.C. but the trench and chalk bank are from around 3100 B.C.
Creo concept gives you a choice to become a part of the production process.The footbeds,shoelaces,outer soles and sewing pattern are sent to the user in a lether envelope that doubles as the inner part of the shoe.Designer of this cool concept : Jennifer Rieker
The environmental damage caused by plastic bags is enormous. Plastic makes up 80% of the volume of litter on roads, parks, and beaches and makes up 90% of floating litter in the ocean (BEC). In every square mile of ocean there are over 46,000 pieces of plastic. This puts an enormous strain on the environment.
When plastic bags find their way into the ocean they kill endangered turtles. Plastic bags are injested by turtles who confuse them for jellyfish, their primary food source. The turtles then suffocate. Plastic bags wrap themselves around living coral and quickly kill them.Tiny flecks of floating plastic swim in a swath of seemingly pristine Atlantic Ocean at least two-thirds the size of the United States.
1. This State’s first St Patrick’s Parade took place in Dublin in 1931. New York lays claim to the world’s first planned parade in 1762, but Boston claims an inpromptu one for 1737 when a meeting of the new Charitable Irish Society spilled on to the streets and turned into a procession of rowdy paddywhackery.
2. St Patrick’s association with green is just a couple of centuries old. For over 1,000 years St Patrick’s hue was blue and today St Patrick’s Blue is the official colour of the President, the National Stud and UCD’s sports teams. Before partition, the strip of the Irish national football squad was St Patrick’s Blue.
3. St Patrick’s Day did not become a public holiday here until 1903 when the Westminster Parliament passed a bill introduced by the Irish MP James O’Mara. Twenty years later, O’Mara would do his best to ruin the day for millions. (See No 5)
4.Before independence, the puritanical Gaelic League waged a campaign of moral intimidation against publicans, demanding they shut their doors all day Paddy’s Day. The bullying worked for a few years until the publicans, realising there was no law to force them to close, defied the republicans.
5. With Independence in 1922, the new political elite made a ban on Paddy’s Day pub opening a top priority. James O’Mara led the way as chief killjoy. In support, one TD said “the drowning of the shamrock” was “a direct insult to the Saint” that must be “obliterated”.
A senator insisted that if St Patrick came back to life he’d drown anyone drowning the shamrock. Countess Markievicz stressed that in addition to pubs, hotels must also stay dry because “I do not see why rich people should not be kept off their drink as well as poor”.
6. In Australia, Melbourne’s city fathers also tried to stamp out Paddy’s Day drinking in 1922, but from a different angle. The pro-British officials opposed Irish independence. Cork-born Archbishop Kevin Mannix led a campaign of civil disobedience and the parade passed off. At the next Irish general election a woman stormed out of the polling station shouting that if she couldn’t vote for Archbishop Mannix she’d vote for no one.
7. The pub ban became law in 1927, but TDs worried about sales from the head shops of the day, so-called ‘dairy shops’ with names like Hyacinth, Bluebell and Tulips. These were openly selling wine on Paddy’s Day, as were the country’s chemists. One TD worried about women getting a prescription filled and slipping a sly bottle of port into their handbags.
8. Guinness gave most workers the day off. With no pubs open, the lucky ones were those who had to work the holiday. They received triple pay and as much stout as they could guzzle.
9. For decades, all adverts were banned on St Patrick’s Day, which was devoted to traditional music, religious services and uplifting back-from-the-future speeches such as Taoiseach De Valera’s 1943 pep-talk looking forward to returning to a Brigadoon world of “happy maidens dancing at the crossroads”.
10. From 1927 to 1961 the RDS Dog Show was the only place to legally drink on Paddy’s Day. Huge crowds turned up. One TD complained it was a grand occasion “except for all the damned dogs”.
11. The independent republic of Limerick openly flouted the opening ban, with thousands of drinkers flooding the lawless city. Limerick police gave the publicans the ‘Nelson’s Eye’, after the admiral who ignored orders by turning his blind eye to semaphore signals.
12. Nelson’s Pillar on Dublin’s O’Connell St was half demolished by a terrorist bomb a week before Paddy’s Day 1966. The Army blew up the stump two days before the parade, causing far more damage than the bombers. RTÉ and the newspapers obeyed a government request to censor out the wreckage from parade coverage.
13. In a Simpson’s Paddy’s Day special, newsman Kent Brockman calls it “the day when everyone is Irish, except the gays and the Italians”. The NY parade’s ban on gays remains upheld in law because it’s deemed a religious event.
14. There was a diplomatic incident in Rome in 1969 when Italian VIPs received invites to a Paddy’s Day bash at the Irish embassy. The bigwigs were miffed that unused invites from 1968 had been recycled, with the ’68 date crossed out and ’69 inserted.
15. This year’s Moscow parade has been abandoned on the grounds it would cause traffic disruption. Some believe the real reason is Ireland’s recent expulsion of a Russian spymaster for forging Irish passports. A miniature indoor party will replace the parade.
16. As Tourism Minister in 1996, Enda Kenny oversaw the extension of Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade into a week-long festival. At the other end of the scale is the Cork village of Dripsey which stages the world’s shortest parade, which runs 23.4 metres from The Weigh Inn pub to The Lee Valley bar, which bookend the hamlet.
17. St Patrick’s Day 1959 saw the birth of the least successful ever Irish export to the US. The brainchild of Irish-American businessman William Curtis, The Shamrock was a gas-guzzling saloon. Sadly, the engine was far too puny to carry the big, heavy frame, and it was impossible to change a punctured tyre without dislocating the entire axle. Ten thousand were supposed to flood the US market. Eight were completed before the kitty ran out.