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Foot Fitness for Life
Normal and
Abnormal Changes in the Foot
The average person takes approximately 10,000 steps per day,
which can add up more than 3 million steps per year. Each step
can place two to three times of body weight forces on the feet.
With time, this extensive repetitive use leads to several normal
changes associated with aging:
- The foot becomes wider and longer.
- There is mild settling of the arch which is seen as flattening
of the foot.
- The fat pad on the bottom of the heel thins out, causing loss
of natural padding and spring in the step.
- The foot and ankle lose some of their normal range of motion
and become stiffer.
- There can be some loss of balance while walking.
Some foot changes can occur that are abnormal or pathological.
These tend to occur in association with prolonged use of ill-fitting
shoes and their incidences peak in the fourth, fifth and sixth
decades. These problems do not occur naturally and many can be
prevented or their progress halted by modifying the shoes that
are worn. These problems include:
- Bunions (the formation of a large bump on the big toe, which
starts to point toward the little toes).
- Hammering of the toes (curling of the toes).
- Clawing of the toes (more severe curling of the toes).
- Bunionettes (the formation of a large bump on the smallest
toe, which starts to point toward the large toe).
- Calluses or corns, which occur on the toes or foot due to
high pressure over bony areas.
- Morton's neuromas ("pinched nerve" between the toes).
- Arthritis of the joints.
Foot Fitness
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Last updated:
November 25, 2003
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