Wondering About Your Health? It's Time to Take a Look at Your Feet...
Have you ever stopped to think about how much your feet are enduring each day?
When walking, each time your heel lifts off the ground, it forces the toes to carry one half of your body weight.
There is no other part of the body that holds so much pressure and stress, and even though, we hardly remember them - unless they hurt.
Although it is well researched and documented that your feet mirror your general health, it doesn't come as a surprise that most people are unaware of how their own feet can provide important clues to the state of their health.
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.
Bodytox has collected Some Amazing Feet Facts:
- A quarter of all the body’s bones are in the feet (There are 52 bones in a pair of feet).
- In a pair of feet, there are 250,000 sweat glands.
- During an average day of walking, the total forces on your feet can total hundreds of tons, equivalent to an average of a fully loaded cement truck.
- 3 out of 4 Americans experience serious foot problems in their lifetime.
- The pressure on the feet when running can be as much as four times the runner's body weight.
Knowing these facts helps us to understand just how important the health and wellbeing of our legs and feet are.
Many spa's, clinic's and even hospitals offer an array of foot and leg treatments which play an important part in improving the health and wellbeing of patients and clients. Some of the more well-known treatments include:
- Reflexology
- Aromatherapy
- Compress bandage
- Poultices
Reflexology is an ancient healing art, using a specialised version of compression and touch that focuses on the feet. Reflexology is the applying of gentle pressure to the soles of the feet, or the palms of the hands in order to stimulate the body’s own healing processes and help people to regain optimum health and promote a feeling of wellbeing and increased energy.
Reflexology is a safe, natural and non-invasive solution that can also complement conventional medical treatment. It helps relieve many conditions caused by modern living.
For instance, our bodies are often affected by minor illnesses, such as the common cold or influenza virus, stress and diet, making us feel down, depressed and feel generally unwell. These problems are treated using pressure, which is applied to specific areas of the feet that correspond to the body parts that are causing us concern, soon the body is rebalanced and a state of equilibrium is reached.
Reflexology dates back to Japan by at least 5,000 years. It was also prolific in China and Egypt; slowly news of its benefits spread to the West and arrived in Europe sometime during the Dark Ages, resulting in modern-day reflexology being born from medical studies which were carried out in the United Kingdom, Germany, the rest of Europe and eventually even the USA.
Your Feet are Your Second Heart
Many believe that the secret of our energy lies in the sole of our foot due to the belief that the soles of our feet act as a second heart. The reason why is that the foot contains the largest number of capillary vessels in the entire body.
In both Oriental medicine and Western medicine, according to a theory disclosed by the German scholar Williams Fitz, “the foot is the source of health” because our internal organs are related to the sole of the foot, and the sole contains mirrored reactors to the internal organs.
Your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood through your body, all the way out to your fingers and down to your toes. That’s a long complex journey and that blood needs to get back to the heart and lungs, where it can get rid of the toxins it picked up along the way, replenish, and circulate again.
The heart doesn’t want to do this alone. It’s too much hard work. So, parts of your body help out to get blood back to your heart i.e. your calf muscles (soleus muscles) and your feet.
Veins and valves work together to push deoxygenated blood back up to the heart and lungs. Vein valves open and close with each muscle contraction to prevent the backflow of blood.
Just as you need to take care of your heart health (less stress, more laughter), you need to take care of your legs and feet.
Get up! Move! As much as you can, keep active! Massage! Keep your legs and feet healthy, and pamper them.
2. Aromatherapy
Adults and children of any age can benefit from a foot and leg massage using the essential oils that relax tired, aching muscles and improve the body’s circulation. And, nothing beats soaking your feet in a nice hot footbath with the right essential oils, since it really does work wonders to ease aches and pains and refresh tired feet.
Stimulating and soothing essential oils such as peppermint, eucalyptus or lavender are perfect to apply to a relaxing and reviving footbath or if having a foot massage, one drop each of peppermint, eucalyptus and lavender to a carrier oil or lotion will provide immediate relief and wellbeing benefits.
The soles of the feet are well supplied with nerve endings and reflex points which reflexologists believe correspond to various organs and systems of the body, and experienced aromatherapists often use reflexology as both a diagnostic tool and treatment when working with clients. So you can see how gentle massage not only soothes your aching feet, but it also improves the function of certain glands and internal organs bringing a benefit to the entire body.
3. Compression Bandages
Compression bandaging is a special type of bandage that provides support to help treat venous leg ulcers and manage leg swelling. These bandages provide support for the veins which enable the valves to work more efficiently. This will improve the blood flow back up the leg and so reduce the overload in the small vessels of the lower limb.
Research has proven that compression bandaging is an effective way of healing specific types of ulceration. There are different types of compression bandaging that a doctor or nurse will prescribe.
4. Poultices
Poultices are one of the safest ways to use herbs and other remedies on the skin for a wide variety of things. They provide the benefits of the herbs but aren’t as concentrated as essential oils or tinctures.
A poultice is basically a paste made of herbs, clays, activated charcoal, salts or other beneficial substances that are wrapped in a piece of cloth and placed on the skin for several hours at a time.
This can be done with fresh or dried herbs or other beneficial substances. The benefit of a poultice is that the body gets constant contact with all of the beneficial parts of the herb or plant for an extended period of time. Poultices are often used to help boils, burns, splinters, infections and other skin problems.
Some poultices can even be used externally to help internal problems i.e. for fever or illness some people recommend dicing and lightly sautéing an onion with a tablespoon of water just until the water evaporates and then placing it between two layers of cloth. This is then applied to the feet and wrapped in a waterproof cloth and cover with socks.
Bodytox Foot Patches - Why and How It Works
Bodytox Foot Patches take elements from each of the above ancient foot therapy practices. They produce internal heat, maintain good circulation, stimulate meridian points and maintain the flow of energy...subtly and gently, while you sleep.
Foot patches originate from the Far East having been used for centuries for the maintenance of good health and well being.
Bodytox Detox Foot Patches are compared in similar ways to reflexology and osmotic principles used by the plant kingdom.
According to the theory of reflexology - the reflexologist’s stimulation to feet, hands, or ears sends a calming message from the peripheral nerves in these extremities to the central nervous system, which in turn signals the body to adjust the tension level, enhancing overall relaxation, and increases blood supply (which brings additional oxygen and nutrients to cells and enhances waste removal).
To osmotic principles used by the plant kingdom - Tree roots transport water up to branches. Similarly, Bodytox detox foot patches cause the skin to perspire and then draw circulating toxins from the bottom of the feet. Tourmaline, used in the patches, increase the flow of bio-electricity and blood circulation around the pad to boost its effectiveness.
The combination of herbs and essential oils act as a modern-day poultice, whilst the heat from the patch helps absorb perspiration containing the waste that your body puts out for collection.
Working on all reflex points in the feet returns the body to homoeostasis. Homeostasis is defined as the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes. In other words, by maintaining our body balances, we can overcome any sickness naturally.
The bottom of the foot is the location where most of the nerves in our body end. Therefore, the patch is best used on the sole of the foot to clean out toxins that are expelled in the form of sweat.
Caring for the sole of your foot is the starting point of having good health.
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