Foot Care: Tips for Beautiful Feet

The feet are the most stressed parts of the body. Regular foot care is important to prevent cracks in the cornea or nail bed inflammation from occurring. Taking care of your feet doesn't take long and is easy to do at home. You can get the equipment in the drugstore: additive for the foot bath, brush, scissors, file, pumice stone and cream.

Wash and apply feet daily

As daily foot care, it is enough to soap your feet, rinse them and then dry them thoroughly. To prevent athlete's foot, you can use a hair dryer to dry it - the toes between the toes are easily reached. Then you should apply a lot of cream to your feet. If you apply cream after showering, you can use the body lotion for your feet and do without a special foot cream.

Mix additive for foot bath yourself

If you want to give your feet a little more attention, it is best to start with a foot bath: the water temperature should not exceed 38 degrees. Bath additive with salicylic acid softens the skin and makes rough areas supple. It also works with ingredients from the kitchen: a cup of olive oil and coarse sea salt, plus a few drops of mint and rosemary oil against bad-smelling bacteria.

Dead skin flakes can be removed with a brush or peeling cream. After that, the feet can soak a little, which makes the following care steps easier. A foot bath should not last longer than ten minutes, otherwise the skin swells and becomes increasingly drier in the long term.

Remove the cornea

A little callus on the feet is normal. If there are rough cracks in the skin, you should remove the cornea, otherwise deep cracks can cause inflammation.

Experts recommend using a pumice stone or a file to remove the cornea. It is best to gently work on dry skin to prevent injuries. Under no circumstances should the cornea be reduced too much, because it protects the feet from daily stress.

Be careful with so-called corneal planing: the risk of planing edges in the foot surfaces or slipping and cutting while planing is very high.

Remove corns

Corns are a special form of cornea. First, you can soften them with special tinctures or plasters that contain concentrated salicylic acid. Then corns can be removed with a pumice stone until the cornea has disappeared.

Causes of cornea and corns

Wrong shoes are often the cause of corneas and corns. So it can be worth trying other shoes - or asking an orthopedic surgeon for advice. Sometimes an insert in the shoe helps.

Cut toenails properly

Toenails should be shortened with nail pliers or strong nail scissors. Unlike fingernails , toenails are cut straight. The side edges remain. Otherwise there will be sharp corners that may wax in or lead to nail bed infections. It is better to then round off the corners with the file.

Caring for cuticles

The cuticles, which are easily loosened by a foot bath, can be pushed back with a rosewood stick. Protruding skin threads can be plucked off with tweezers, but never cut off. Because everything that is cut off grows stronger and horny. When applying cream, you should also consider the cuticles. Instead of a foot lotion, the skin can also be softened with the flesh of a ripe avocado or almond oil.

Foot care tips for diabetics

Regular medical foot care is particularly important for diabetics. Because they often have nerve dysfunctions in their feet, so they don't feel small injuries. In addition, wound healing is worse in diabetics and thus the risk of infection is higher.

That is why diabetics should check their feet for injuries every day, apply cream carefully and be particularly careful with pumice stone and tools. If you are unsure, leave foot care to a medical professional, a podiatrist. Statutory health insurance companies cover 90 percent of the costs if treatment for diabetics has been prescribed.