Do You Have a Feel for Your Feet?

About a quarter of the bones in your entire body are in your feet. They get you where you need to go every day. By the time you’re 50, your two feet are likely to have logged about 75,000 miles. That’s about equal to walking around Earth three times.

Bearing the brunt of your body’s weight takes a toll. It’s common to get stress fractures -- tiny breaks -- in the long, thin bones in the middle of your feet, called the metatarsals.

These breaks are usually caused by repetitive motion -- doing the same thing over and over again, like running or walking. But those bones can also break if you drop something on them or have some other kind of accident.

When’s the last time you had your foot measured? Feet get longer and wider as you age. And if you’re a woman, giving birth can do that, too. Still, many women keep wearing the same size shoe, and that leads to pain and foot problems.

Before you buy another pair, get your foot measured for both length and width. The best time to do this is the end of the day, when your feet are their largest.

If you’ve ever tried to keep shoes on a baby, you may be glad to know they don’t really need them. Let your little one yank them off. Same goes for super-snug socks, too. Their feet are growing so quickly that they don’t need anything closing them in. Save the shoes for when they’re walking on their own.

About 1 in every 1,000 babies is born with an extra toe or finger. The condition is called polydactyly, which means “extra digit.” It can be passed down in families, but sometimes it’s the result of a medical syndrome. Other times, there’s no known cause. Usually, surgeons remove the extra toe when a child is very young.

Our ancestors knew going barefoot was rough on their feet. They may have worn foot coverings earlier, but they started wearing shoes for support toward the end of the Old Stone Age. Researchers base this on fossil evidence: Shoes changed the way people walked; toes were used less and, as a result, became smaller.

Your feet have more than 250,000 sweat glands. Sweat is odorless. But when it mixes with the bacteria on your skin, it can cause a smell. To keep that from happening, try to keep your feet clean and dry. If your foot odor is strong, see a foot doctor called a podiatrist. Prescription medication may help.

A young Venezuelan man holds the Guinness World Record for biggest feet. They’re each over 15 inches long. They have their shoes custom made. The reason for their large shoe size? They have an overactive pituitary gland, which controls growth.