Protect Your Feet by Shedding Weight

You have every reason to worry when the weighing scale starts tilting beyond normal level – not because you look no more attractive, but for the more alarming reason that it can lead to several health problems. The one body part that gets immediately affected is your foot. You gain weight, and you might find your mobility the first casualty. Obesity can and does wreck your foot health.

Discussed below are a few helpful facts that would enlighten you on the significance of shedding weight to keep your foot health.

Relationship between body weight and foot health

It is the foot which bears the entire body weight. Gaining even an extra 25 pounds can tip the scale, and cause painful foot and ankle conditions. This is because the extra weight gain changes automatically your body posture while walking. Your knees come closer, and the body weight shifts to the insides of your feet triggering various problems.

Obesity-caused specific foot problems

Obesity makes you susceptible to several health conditions like diabetes, high uric acid, peripheral arterial disease and so on. High uric acid in turn causes gout, a painful condition which affects foot and ankle joints. Due to diabetes you might experience numbness of feet, often leading to sudden injuries. Sometimes, accumulation of plaque in the arterial walls of your legs can lead to reduction of blood flow to the feet.

In serious cases, amputation of toes or feet is not improbable. Apart from these, tendon inflammation, swelling and tenderness of the plantar fascia and osteoarthritis are a few common outcomes of obesity, which can affect normal, active life.

Damage control

When overweight is the root cause of your foot problem, you need to lose weight undoubtedly to handle the situation. Intense physical activity is the best solution; but if you start working too hard all of a sudden, you might end up with foot injuries.

That is why doctors suggest low-impact aerobic activities, most preferably water aerobics. Start exercising gradually; avoid too strenuous activities, which can aggravate your foot condition.

Before starting any new exercise regime, seek your physician’s guidance to ensure that your heart and lungs are strong enough to endure the activity. Besides, you need to keep a close watch on the diet: include healthy food items to prevent fat accumulation.

When to consult a podiatrist?

Often you may fail to recognize the culprit – the pair of shoes you wear. If your foot condition does not improve, in spite of reducing body weight and exercising regularly, then you need to visit a podiatrist: you need to make sure your shoes are of right size and shape.

If your shoes do not support properly your body weight, that would impact directly your feet. In such a situation, your podiatrist can suggest a pair of shoes that would best complement your feet for safe mobility and good health.

To sum up, track your body weight regularly. Take prompt action the moment you feel something is wrong with your feet.