What Everyone Should Know About Summer Foot Care

Summer is the best time of the year to enjoy walking, swimming, and bare feet. You may have been for a lovely professional pedicure to make sure your feet are smooth and your toenails look great, so you don't feel embarrassed about showing them off to the world. To keep your feet looking and feeling wonderful the whole season, you will probably need to do a little more.

Do you know what excessive sweating can do to your feet, and how to prevent the adverse effects related to more profuse perspiration? And are you aware of how common foot diseases spread, and what to do about them? If the answer to these questions is no, just keep reading, and we'll show you what you can do to take care of those tootsies. 

How The Shoes You Wear During Summer Affect Your Feet

If the weather is great (read: hot) where you live, the chances are that you've already made the switch to flip flops, ballet slippers, or similarly airy foot wear. Both of these look great with shorts or summer dresses and stop your feet from getting too hot, but neither provides the arch support your feet really need.

Wearing your ordinary, cheap flip flops or ballet slippers all summer long may have consequences — your feet can start hurting. With flip flops, especially, your feet will be moving as you walk and foot cramps and blisters can result.

To solve these problems while still enjoying the feeling summer footwear offers, make sure that you rotate your shoes around and that you don't wear non-supportive shoes all the time. Save these for the beach or around the home, and don't wear flip flops or ballet slippers when you go for long walks. Sandals produced with an arch provide better foot support, also because the straps prevent your feet from moving around as you walk.

Those folks who do wear enclosed shoes during the summer may find that they have overly sweaty feet while the weather is hot, especially if they like to wear their shoes without socks. Plimsolls are especially notorious for causing sweaty feet. Sweaty feet make your shoes stink, which will shorten their lifespan. It will also cause bits of skin to peel off the soles of your feet, usually in circular patterns. Finally, sweaty feet are much more likely to develop blisters.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to excessively sweaty feet. Apply talcum powder (better known as baby powder) to the soles of your feet every morning, and you'll find that your feet stay smooth and pleasant all day long. Talc, the mineral from which talcum powder is made, contains a mixture of magnesium, silicon, and oxygen. If you've ever been involved with a sport in which it's important not to have sweaty hands, you'll know all about magnesium powder. Talcum powder is available from any store in the baby section, is inexpensive, and it really does work wonders.