What your feet can tell you about your health

By Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol

From skin to hair, scabs and even tears, the external appearance of the body can offer clues about the state of your health.

But there’s another part of the anatomy that’s often overlooked: the feet.

Feet are wired up to nerve fibre tracts from the brain so you can stand, balance and wiggle your toes. They’re also plumbed by blood vessels, which lead all the way from the heart.

The appearance and function of our feet, then, can indicate viral infections, diseases of the cardiovascular system and even neurological disorders. Here are a couple of examples

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFM)

Infectious diseases tend to affect different parts of the body.

Measles usually starts off on the face, or in the mouth, as little spots that look like grains of sugar. Pityriasis versicolor, a type of fungal infection tends to begin and stay on the torso. The reasons why they tend to affect these areas is not well understood.

HFM disease begins in exactly these areas. It’s caused by a virus known as coxsackie, and tends to produce raised pink-red spots, that can blister and weep. The name is a bit of a misnomer — the rash can also affect the legs and buttocks too. Noticing a new rash on the feet should prompt a doctor to consider HFM.

https://youtu.be/WwU9omjd-ak?si=zd9p05X30G99OhzK

HFM is a common childhood illness that’s very contagious. Thankfully, it’s also usually short lived, clearing without treatment after a few days.

It shouldn’t be confused with foot and mouth – or better, hoof and mouth, however. Foot and mouth is a different virus from HFM that (mainly) affects cloven-hoofed animals, like cows and sheep. This is the disease that resulted in a UK epidemic back in 2001.

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