About the feet

Our feet carry us through our lifetime, yet they receive so little attention and care. Not only do they help us get from one place to another (weather we choose to walk, ride a bicycle or drive a car), do various sports or simply stand in one place, but they are involved in most movements we make during our daily routine.
The average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, which adds up to about 115,000 miles over a lifetime. That's enough to go around the circumference of the earth four times. An average day of walking brings a force equal to several hundred tons to bear on the feet.
The foot contains 26 bones (1/4 of all the bones in the human body), 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19 muscles and numerous tendons to hold the bones in place and to move in a variety of ways, and a network of blood vessels, nerves, skin, and soft tissue. In addition, each foot has about 125,000 sweat glands which excrete as much as a half a pint of moisture each day.
The human foot consists of:
- Seven thick, short, tarsal bones which compose the heel and back of the instep.
- Five parallel metatarsal bones that form the front of the instep. They spread toward the front of the foot to form the ball of the foot.
- Fourteen smaller phalanges that make up the toes (the large toe has two, each smaller toe has three).
- Tough bands of tissue (ligaments) that connect the bones and hold them in place.
- The tarsal and metatarsal bones that form the two arches of the foot.
- A thick layer of fatty tissue under the sole, which helps the arches absorb the pressure and shocks of walking, running and jumping.
The components of the feet work together to provide the body with support, balance, and mobility, sharing the tremendous pressures of daily living. When the different parts of the feet are out of alignment, so is the rest of the body.
That is why it is so important to take good care of our feet.