What Foot Symptoms Can Reveal About Your Whole-Person Health

It’s easy to take your feet for granted. They take you where you need to go without much effort beyond adding socks and shoes, yet your feet can reveal much about aspects of your health, even when you’re not experiencing foot pain. 

The podiatrists at Hudson Valley Foot Associates in Kingston, New Windsor, Wappingers Falls, Hudson, Red Hook, Margaretville, and West Coxsackie, New York, can read clues about aspects of your health during a simple foot exam. 

Let’s explore what foot symptoms can reveal about your whole-person health, including connections between symptoms and conditions. 

Cold feet

If you’re the owner of a huge sock collection along with plenty of lined slippers and your feet still feel cold, many potential health conditions could be contributing, including: 

• Hypothyroidism: an underactive thyroid slows your metabolism, often felt as cold in the hands and feet
• Circulatory conditions: such as peripheral artery disease, which reduces blood flow
• Diabetes: affecting both blood flow and nerve activity, high blood sugar levels may cause your feet to feel cold
• Raynaud’s disease: blood vessels in your feet contract in response to cold or stress

Occasional cold feet are common and no cause for concern. When cold feet become chronic, it’s time to investigate. 

Slow-healing wounds

A small cut or scrape on your feet may take longer to heal than cuts on other parts of your body. When the time difference is less than a week, there’s no cause for alarm. When foot wounds linger for weeks or months with little or no improvement, it’s time to visit us for a diagnosis. 

Slow-healing wounds can be a sign of reduced blood flow, affecting your body’s ability to heal the injury. Diabetes often results in foot ulcers due to blood flow problems compounded by nerve damage. You may not feel a severe wound as it gets worse. 

In rare cases, some skin cancers can resemble open sores, another reason not to ignore a slow-healing wound. 

Swollen, painful big toe

When your big toe becomes swollen and painful for no apparent reason, you may be having a gout attack. Caused by a buildup of uric acid in the blood, gout may occur in response to a splurge on foods and drinks high in purines. 

Frequent gout attacks may point to problems with the kidneys not filtering uric acid as they should. Repeated gout episodes can also lead to the breakdown of the joint in the big toe. 

Other sources of foot problems include alcohol overuse, infections, nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune diseases, and more. Even pain problems that start in and affect your feet can be tricky to diagnose. 

Contact the nearest Hudson Valley Foot Associates location to schedule a consultation and exam. You can book your visit by phone or online, so plan now.