Fascinating Foot Facts
* The average adult takes in excess of 18,000 steps a day. For children it’s even more.
* In a lifetime your feet will walk approximately 112000 kilometres – that’s four time around the earth.
* Leonardo da Vinci called the foot a masterpiece of engineering. each foot has 26 bones, 19 muscles, more than 100 ligaments, thousands of nerve endings and a complex network of blood vessels.
Every time your foot hits the floor when walking it’s the equivalent of twice your body weight. if you are running this increases to three times your body weight.
Fascinating Foot Facts
* The foot has 250,000 sweat glands, they release about 200 mls of perspiration every day.
* Around 70% of foot problems come from wearing the wrong footwear or ill-fitting shoes. Many of these foot problems start in childhood.
* 85% of diabetic foot ulcers are caused by footwear.
* In the United Kingdom, about 30 million pounds is spent annually on foot care services for the elderly.
* Even the Bible records the foot problems of King Asa, David’s son……"nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet." (1 Kings 15:23).
6th Biennial Conference of the South African Podiatry Association
Approximately 120 of South Africa’s podiatrists gathered at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg from Friday 6th to Sunday 8th July. Definitely the highlight of the SA podiatric calender!
The conference showed just how far Podiatry has come in recent years – despite the small number of registered podiatrists in the country – in providing quality foot care to the people of South Africa. For example; Podiatrists are developing into specialists in many areas of foot care and are working as key members of multidisciplinary teams in Sport – treating foot pathologies, researching biomechanics and understanding new footwear technologies. Their role in managing the Diabetic foot was confirmed. Research into the foot problems associated with Arthritis is developing. The field of Footwear design and manufacture is being influenced by podiatrists.
Papers were presented on Professional Ethics, Vascular Disease, Rheumatology, the Biomechanics of Cycling, Footwear sizing, the Diabetic Foot, Foot Surgery, Foot Biomechanics and Neurology.
A great weekend where new information was presented, ideas exchanged and practice enhanced.