FOOT FACTS

• Our feet travel an average 115,000km in a lifetime - more than four times the circumference of the globe.


• People take an average of 10,000 steps every day.


• The foot is an amazing network of 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 31 tendons and metres of nerves and blood vessels.


• A quarter of all the bones in your body are in your feet.


• The single heel bone has the shock load of 2 - 3 times the full body weight with each step you take.


• Around 75% of people will have painful foot problems at some point in their life.


• From the time we are born our feet are constantly changing. They continue to increase in size throughout life, so your feet should be measured for shoes periodically.


• Women have about four times as many foot problems as men; wearing the wrong shoes - including high heels and pointy toes causes many of the problems.


• Our feet have approx 250,000 sweat glands, and they produce as much as a cup of moisture each day.


• The toenail may be from 0.05mm to 1.0mm thick and grows its full length in 6 - 12 months.


• Bunions are inherited. Countries where people don't traditionally wear shoes have the same % of the population with bunions as countries whose population generally wears shoes.