Feet and Nails Health
By Mr. Steven Horne

While delicate bones provide stability for the feet, three arches provide structure. The foot has two arches that span its length and one that straddles its width. These arches are the key to leverage of motion.
Since our feet are well designed, we don't pay much attention to them as long as they work properly. But 87 percent of all Americans have trouble with their feet, according to the U.S. Public, Health Service. So whenever we experience the agony of "de-feet," they get our "sole" attention.

Throughout a person's lifetime bones, tendons and ligaments adjust to carrying the body's weight. Activities such as jumping and running speed up the process of wearing out our feet since these activities force the feet to work harder. This explains why a foot that was rarely noticed starts to complain. Consequently, our physical actions, level of activity and footwear influence our feet.

In this issue we have a treat for your feet and answers for foot problems that can save you time and money, as well as agony and strain. Since feet outnumber people two to one, don't "foot the bill" for neglecting your feet. Three simple rules to help you avoid foot trouble. Wash your feet daily, keep them dry, wear proper shoes.

Oh, my aching feet!
If the Shoe Doesn't Fit...

"The beat shoe is no shoe."(1) However, shoeless people overflowing shopping malls, office places and restaurants hardly seem a feasible solution to foot problems in the 2000s. Since people without shoes seem impractical, shoes should serve as a practical means of protecting and supporting the feet. But some shoe styles are simply fashion fads that become the enemy of our feet , particularly for women. Since the days of early Chinese society, the binding of women's feet disfigured them. According to the dictates of Chinese society, this "barbarous custom" kept the feet of Chinese women small, since small feet were considered more appealing to men.

Distorting women's feet to conform to fashion still persists today. Twenty First Century women clad themselves in high heel shoes, leaving them with more bunions, ingrown toenails, calluses and corns than men. The result is often continual foot cue and even surgery. "The fashion shoe is a slowly deforming device, often taking year before the damaging effects appear." And you often live with the problems the rest of your life.

Fashion shoe or not, nearly all shoes for women or men available in the market place today are not practical. They need enough room to allow your toes and the rest of your foot to move as you walk, without pressing, rubbing, or irritating the foot. Many shoes also lack heels low enough to give you the equilibrium necessary for proper standing and walking.

One solution to comfortably covering your feet is the property fitted sandal. Julius Fast, editor of Podiatry News, says "In some ways, sandals are the best footwear you can wear. The toes, left unhampered, can spread properly during the developmental years. If, from the time you were able to walk, you wore sandals with a strap between the big toe and the second, you would avoid most toe injuries, corns, bunions, club toes and turn-in toes."

Some sandals, besides reducing foot problems, give your feet a "rubdown" as well.
Acupressure massage sandals "massage" your feet with "natural rubber fingers, giving your feet a stimulating feeling. In addition, the nodule design of the sandals, which adjusts to the shape of your sole, gives you added support while cushioning the impact of walking. The neutral heel aids balance and improves posture, therefore decreasing pressure and, strain in your feet, legs, lower back.

To adjust to the new sensation of massage sandals, slowly increase the length of time you wear them each day, beginning with five to 30 minute periods two or three times per day. Wearing socks the first few times you wear the sandals may increase your comfort as you got used to them (about two to three weeks). Break your sandals in by wearing them around the house. Usually massage sandal are worn periodically, but some people think they provide comfort throughout the day.

Other alternatives to sandal that also reduce foot problems include moccasins, saddle shoes or other low heeled, broad-toed shoes. But avoid loafers, which lead to corns. If specific foot problems require you to buy shoes with more support, remember "your chances of getting what you need in a shoe with supports are about the same as your chances of getting the right eyeglasses by picking a pair out of a bin."
Have your feet examined by a podiatrist, and buy the shoes that he or she designed for you to assure your feet of support that fits. But no matter where you buy your foot gear, the rule of foot says, 'If the shoe does not fit don't wear it."

Endnotes
1.Marco Bruno, Feet Need Better Shoes-And Better Food, "Prevention", June 1974. p.103.
2. S. W. Balkin, D.P.M., '"What Do Women Want? Comfy Shoes Sometimes" JAMA, January 13, . 1993, Vol. 269, No. 2, p. 215.
3. Nancy Carlzen, "Sandals Are Not Just for Summer, Anymore." Bestways, June 1979, P. 90.
4 Marco Bruno, p. 103.

A Practical Guide to Fancy Foot Care
To keep you a step ahead of your feet, the following remedies provide relief for foot problems such as corns and gout, and likewise, foot "accidents" such as a twisted ankle. You will find that with these remedies, your foot pain will "heel" so that you can put your "best foot forward" no matter what type of alignment you find your feet in.

Athlete Foot
Rotate the following external remedies, using each in turn for 10 days, and resting for 5 days before beginning the next:
Apply tea tree oil directly to inflamed skin (non-caustic, non-irritating), next, use a dropperful of Pau d'Aarco extract directly over the toes at night and finally use 10 drops grapefruit seed (Aromatherapy: pink grapefruit) extract to 1/2 cup water and pour over your toes (use more water to make enough solution to soak your feet).
Yeast-Fungal Detox Internally
You can also apply Lavender

Caution: To avoid blistering, grapefruit seed extract (Aromatherapy: Pink Grapefruit) must always be diluted. Never apply directly to the skin.
Use Bifidophilus Flora Force internally.
Take vitamin A and C daily for one month, which will help reduce stress. For severe cases use larger doses of vitamin C up to bowel tolerance. (Absorbate form is nonacid and easier on the stomach). In addition, follow the Candida Diet.
Zinc will also help inhibit fungus growth.

Burning feet
Use Combination Kidney Activator to help flush the kidneys, Mega-Chel to improve circulation and 1000-1500 mg. Pantothenic acid daily. (This condition is usually caused by a lack of pantothenic acid.)
Also you might consider the liquid combination: Kidney Drainage.

Bunions
Steep dandelion flowers (early spring) for 20 minutes in 1 cup purified water, then soak foot or apply this infusion directly to afflicted area.

Calluses
Find the shoes that caused the friction and replace them with shoes that fit. Follow recommendations under corns.

Cold Feet
Try peppermint oil externally.

Corns
Apply garlic oil to corn. Put slice of raw garlic on corn with a bandaid. This can be done at night time until the corn is gone.

Cracked Heels
Use B vitamin therapy.

Dry Skin
Apply 1 ounce of Olive Oil after taking hot bath every day.
Supplement your diet with Omega 3 EPA (concentrated fish oil), which supplies the unsaturated fatty acids your body needs that you can only get through your diet. Other useful dietary supplements include vitamins A and E and lecithin.

Fungus of the skin, nails and between the toes
Soak in 2 cups Pau D'arco and 4-6 drops of tea tree oil for 15 minutes each day. Tea tree oil can also be applied directly to the skin to treat fungus. Soaking fingernails and toenails in 5 drops of grapefruit seed extract (pink grapefruit - Aromatherapy) and 4 ounces of water also helps clear up this condition.
Caution: grapefruit extract must be diluted.
In addition, apply honey and crushed garlic mixed with tea tree oil externally.
Include in your diet the Candida Diet recommendations.

Gout

This ailment occurs when there is too much uric acid in the blood, tissues and urine. Take large amounts of juniper berries and safflower each day. Use Combination Kidney Activator, which aide the excretion of uric acid. Check also for digestive problems, which are common with gout. Use internally one quart of strong pau d'arco tea a day.
Be sure to include Vitamin C and Skeletal Strength, as part of your therapy.

Diet recommendations include black cherry juice. Avoid red meat, mushrooms, alcohol and beans (except green beans), peas, spinach, sugar or flour products. Eat a lot of cherries and strawberries, which help reduce acids.

Nails

Nail problems are often the result of nutritional deficiencies.

Brittle nails need vitamin A and calcium.

Splitting nails lack Hydrochloric acid or PDA.

White spots need zinc.
Horizontal and vertical ridges or "spoon" nails indicate poor protein and calcium absorption (also could mean ... arthritis).

Horizontal ridges also indicate anemia.

Fungus under nails points to Candida or a lack of "friendly bacteria."

No half moons means poor body circulation. Add HSN-Complex and Super Supplemental to your diet.

Toenail Infections
Soak in epsom salts and warm water. Separate the nail from the skin with cotton. A few drops of tea tree oil applied externally, alternating with vitamin E as an antiseptic for the skin, will speed up the healing process.

Warts

Several remedies have worked to get rid of warts: squeeze fresh milk from the leaf of dandelion on the wart, put castor oil on the wart every night and morning, put vitamin E 100 IU capsules on a band-aid and place over the wart for 2-3 weeks, put raw potato over the wart for several weeks. Take beta carotene internally (100,000 bandaid) for one month (read below).

WARTS: Four Winds suggestions: Use the Replenishing Cream Cream and C-Herb.
Warts should be prepared before application by soaking in warm water or scraping the crown of the wart down so C-Herb can be absorbed by the skin. Each application of C-Herb should be kept in place for 24 hours. This can be done by loosely applying a Band-Aid over the application.
Also, one can scrape off the tough, callous-like tissue on top before applying C-Herb. Once down to the “pink” flesh of the wart, apply as directed for moles.
If the surface is particularly hard... the Replenishing Cream is a product that has been recommended to help soften tissue 1 to 2 weeks prior to using C-Herb. It may also be used the 2 weeks following the use of C-Herb to further minimize scarring of the treated area.

Note: Often a wart will turn very white and get sore. When the wart has turned white you may want to take a sterile needle and gently poke the top. Next you’ll very GENTLY press the sides of the wart until a “seed” comes out (this looks like the seed in a concord grape) and the pain will stop almost immediately.

1. A deformity of the middle joint of any toe except the big toe, where the toe becomes permanently flexed or clawed.
2. This 21-day diet focuses on proteins and fats, such as raw egg yolks. No sugar, refined foods or preservatives.
3. A fomentation or compress is made by immersing a clean cloth in a warm infusion or decoction. Wring out and apply to inflammation, swelling, etc. Use while solution is warm and let it cool on the body. If necessary reapply.