Did you know that you will walk more than 100,000 miles in your lifetime?
Over 80% of Americans suffer from foot pain.
Medieval Europeans believed that wearing pointy-toed shoes would make witches helpless.
High heels were first introduced in the 16th century by Queen Catherine de Medici of France.
In the same century, Italian women began wearing very strange-looking, two-foot high platform shoes called “chopines”. They were originally designed to keep women 'on a pedestal', so to speak. The shoes were banned because they presented the danger of miscarriage to pregnant women who fell from the that height.
About 60% of the body’s weight is supported by the balls of the feet, not the heels.
The foot measurement began in ancient times was based on the length of the human foot.
By the Middle Ages, the foot as defined by different European countries ranged from 10 to 20 inches.
In 1305, England set the foot equal to 12 inches. (The measurement we still use today)
In animals that walk on all four legs, the ends of the front and hind feet are much the same.
The human foot has 26 bones. There are three sets of bones: the ankle bones (tarsals), instep bones (metatarsals), and toe bones (phalanges).
Bones in the feet are not completely formed until a person is about 20 years old.
The foot has as many muscles as the hand, but the foot’s structure allows less flexibility and freedom of movement than the hand.
Swollen ankles can be a sign of congestive heart failure.
Feet that are insensitive to pain and temperature can be a sign of diabetes.
Cold feet may signify circulatory disease.
