As we hit the cooler months in South East Queensland and Northern NSW, we are packing away our sandals and open-toe shoes and reaching to the back of the cupboard for our closed-in winter shoes.
Wearing the correct shoes is one of the most important factors in keeping your feet healthy and pain-free. In some instances, changing your footwear can even promote healing.
This blog is aimed to provide some insight to a number of the benefits of wearing footwear, as well as choosing correct and well-fitting footwear.
- Stay away germs!
Footwear protects your feet from germs that lead to bacterial and fungal issues. These may cause itchiness, swelling and redness. In addition, if you are diabetic, these germs can cause sores to develop which can develop into serious infections if not treated promptly. As always, prevention is better than cure, so having the right footwear to start with is far easier than recovering from a nasty infection.
- Injury prevention
It’s obvious that wearing footwear helps to keep you safe from injury, that’s why footwear was invented! We are very lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country where we have clean, safe parks and walkways to walk on. However, there are always sharp objects, rocks, glass and other items that may cause injury if you’re walking barefoot. It’s important to note however, that poor fitting footwear can also lead to injury. Tight shoes can cause ingrown toenails, blisters and even contribute to corns and calluses.
- Get a grip.
Depending on where you are and what you are doing, shoes can provide you with a better grip on surfaces. There are several different shoe types for different activities and it is important to wear the appropriate shoe for your environment. Our podiatrists will be able to recommend a shoe type for your favourite activities – whether you are looking for a shoe for sports, work or just around the house.
- Shoes can improve your posture.
Having a solid foundation is always important, so making sure you have the correct footwear is a great place to start improving your posture. Having supportive shoes can assist in aligning your whole lower limb and preventing biomechanical issues developing further up the body. As every foot is different, customised orthotics can be created to adapt an off-the-shelf shoe to suit your specific needs, improving imbalances from your feet, ankles, knees, hips all the way up to your back.
If you are looking for footwear advice or think orthotics may benefit you, book in with one of our podiatrists! We can assist in assessing and providing footwear options suited to your needs to help you get the best from your feet at work, at play or even around the house!