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Don't let bad shoes, sweaty feet, plantar warts and fungal infections ruin your summer! Read on to find out what you can do to keep your feet healthy and looking good.

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.

Plantar Warts And Fungal Infections

Dealing With Plantar Warts

You may be glad to be rid of woolly socks and boots for the summer, but the higher temperature and increased humidity of summer does bring some hazards.

You're more likely to fall victim to plantar warts, especially if you frequent public swimming pools or stay at hotels. Plantar warts, also called verrucas, are caused by a strain of HPV, the Human Papilloma Virus. These warts look nasty and can hurt, and, unless you take steps to eliminate them, veruccas can stick around for many years. Thankfully, there are a couple of things you can do to reduce your risk of developing these warts — and since they're two opposite tactics, you'll have to take your pick.

You can go barefoot and let your feet sun dry completely after you have used public showering areas, and walk for a while after so the friction eliminates the virus from your foot sole. This tactic means you're more likely to come into contact with sharp objects, of course. You could also choose to wear flip flops or crocs whenever you use a public showering area. If you go this route, you'd need to wear something on all tiled areas of indoor or outdoor pools.

Should you end up with a wart or several anyway, you'll need to decide how to proceed. Many doctors are currently of the opinion that plantar warts don't need to be treated unless they cause discomfort.

Liquid nitrogen is a common treatment, which freezes the warts. This treatment may be hugely popular, but I'll share a secret with you — I had two plantar warts on my foot soles for 20 years. Liquid nitrogen proved to be a somewhat painful but totally ineffective treatment for me.

I managed to get rid of my warts recently, after my family doctor prescribed me a solution containing salicylic acid. The treatment was painless, and my warts were gone within two weeks. Research shows that salicylic acid acid is only effective in around 15 percent of cases, though. If you've tried everything, including liquid nitrogen, salicylic acid, and other over-the-counter wart treatments, then surgical verucca removal may be another option for you.

Treating Fungal Foot Infections 

What's the deal with fungal foot infections? As with plantar warts, you're more likely to end up with one during the summer months. Sweaty feet are at a higher risk, so make sure you follow the suggestion to put talcum powder on your feet every day. Foot deodorants may also help you combat sweaty feet. Your feet should be exposed to the air regularly even if you successfully avoid sweaty feet. Shoes, but especially nylon socks, are the perfect breeding grounds for fungi. (Yes, that means that, if you do wear socks, they should be made of natural fibers.)

You've got a good reason to suspect you've contracted a fungal infection called athlete's foot if you have peeling or cracking skin that looks like scales on the soles of your feet. Your feet may be red and much more prone to blisters, and you may notice itching or burning sensations. These symptoms could mean other things too, so see a podiatrist or your family doctor for a diagnosis.

The most common treatment is a topical anti-fungal cream, but you may need an oral anti-fungal medication if that doesn't do the trick. Fungal nail infections are a problem too. If you end up with one of these, you can use anti-fungal tablets or nail paints to clear the infection up. In the meantime, maintain great foot hygiene and be patient, as these infections can take months to resolve.

Don't relax as soon as your fungal infection clears up; you could be reinfected by your own shoes or bathroom. Thoroughly clean your bathroom with bleach, and wash shoes in the washing machine or clean the insides with bleach. Better still, replace your shoes after the infection is gone so that any remaining spores don't reinfect you.  

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