Hand and foot care

• Keep your hands moisturized to avoid wrinkles and calluses.
• Use sunscreen lotion on your hands and forearms before going out in the sun.
• Protect your hands and nails by wearing gloves during activity that can cause tearing of skin or chipping of nails, such as during gardening, using cleaning agents, etc.
• Always pat your hands dry after they have been wetted with water so as to avoid fungal infections of the nails, especially if you are prone to working in wet areas.
• Relax and pamper your hands at least once a fortnight to keep them supple and well-cared for.
• Keep hands warm and avoid situations where hands are exposed to extremes of temperature.
• Avoid using nail colors and nail color removers that contain acetone.
• Keep your nails strong and healthy looking but avoid coloring them with nail color or restrict the usage of nail colors to once in a fortnight.
• Avoid cuticle removal processes as they can damage your nails and predispose you to infections.
• Use hand cream to moisturize your hands at least twice a day

Keeping your hands supple also includes avoiding damages caused by improper and excessive usage of the keyboard and mobile phone texting that can result in repetitive stress injuries. In the event that a stress injury does occur, ensure that you provide occasion for adequate rest and recovery.

Feet

Feet support your weight and get you places and, in addition to this, they also indicate how and how much you care for yourself. Similar to our hands, they are also part of our body language and hence, influence others perception of us. Even if one were unconcerned out how one is perceived by one’s feet, any disorder that affects these two extreme appendages can throw life out of gear considerably.

Caring for feet
As your feet do a lot of weight bearing, it is understandable that they tend to be prone to roughening, developing calluses and corns, cracking, developing fungal infections, etc. The key to avoiding these pitfalls to maintaining beautiful feet include washing your feet properly and scrubbing to remove dead skin and following this up with an adequate moisturizing routine. In addition, feet also need exercise to keep them supple and need comfortable footwear that supports the arches and Tendons in all ranges of normal movement. Footwear should be such that the feet are relaxed and have adequate ventilation that will prevent development of fungal infections.

• Check your feet daily with a 30-sec inspection to rule out any redness, discoloration, cracks, or other abnormalities.
• Wear the appropriate size footwear. Your toes should be able to wriggle comfortably in the shoes that you wear.
• Keep the area between the toes dry and check for peeling skin or unnatural moistness on a daily basis.
• Cutting nails should be undertaken after a bath or after soaking feet for sometime to ease the process.
• Never try to remove a corn, ingrown toenail or callus by yourself. Self-surgery gone wrong can be costly in terms of health and finances.
• Prevention of cracking by keeping feet supple and moisturized can solve nearly 50% of all feet problems.
• If sitting for long periods of time, ensure that you move your feet and ankles frequently so as to keep the circulation active.
• Avoid exposing feet to extremes of temperature.
• Regular or daily exercise should also have a component of foot exercises.
• Do not ignore pain. Identify the cause and eliminate it. If the pain persists, it is essential to consult your doctor for an adequate evaluation.