Soaking your feet in hot water before going to bed has become a "compulsory course" to treat yourself. For many people, a basin of hot water, put the foot into it, the feeling of warmth and melting from the feet to the whole body, is indeed very comfortable, so there are many people who say that hot water soaking feet can improve health, especially when this statement is used by some commercial products, it will be more boastful of the efficacy of hot water soaking feet.
However, don't say that there is no effect, for many people, hot water soaking feet even has certain health risks.
Everyone wants to soak their feet, how to soak? It's a real thing.
1, soaking feet is very comfortable, but there is no advertising of the multiple effects.
2, foot soaking is not suitable for everyone, like diabetes, varicose vein patients and children should pay attention.
3, soak the feet water temperature is not too high, to about 40 ° C is appropriate. The water temperature is too high, which is harmful to people with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At the same time, the water temperature is too high to easily damage the sebaceous membrane on the surface of the skin of the foot, making the stratum corneum dry or even cracked.
4, the foot soaking time should not be too long, each time the time of soaking feet is best not more than half an hour, because the human blood circulation and heart rate will be accelerated when soaking feet, and too long time will increase the burden on the heart.
5. When the temperature of the water cannot be determined, it is recommended to try it with your hands instead of using your feet, because your hands are more sensitive to temperature than your feet. For diabetic foot patients, the temperature is measured with a thermometer when washing feet to avoid burns.
Soaking feet in hot water is not so magicalWhen soaking feet in hot water, due to the increase in ambient temperature, the peripheral blood vessels in the legs and feet are dilated, and the blood flow to the skin of the feet increases. However, in a short period of time, this local cycle change will hardly have a great impact on body circulation, and even will not affect the core body temperature like bathing or showering, so for healthy people, foot soaking may not cause too much physical change, so it is not effective to expect to treat various diseases by soaking feet.
From the schematic diagram of blood circulation, it can be seen that the systemic circulation is composed of many blood vessels that are parallel to each other, and the hot water soaking foot first only changes the blood circulation of the lower limbs of the body, and this change will not have much impact on the body circulation in a short period of time. Image source: hanyu.iciba.com
Searching for relevant studies found that the sleep aid effect of hot water soaking feet should be the most studied. An article published in the International Journal of Nursing Research in 2013 reviewed the results of this area from 1996 to 2005. In the 25 healthy middle-aged and elderly participants in this experiment, hot water foot baths helped sleep.
The paper's main conclusion is that for healthy people, lower temperature, short-term foot baths can assist sleep, but it has little effect on the elderly and people with poor sleep itself. The study explains the relationship between foot soaking and sleep assistance through the "near and far temperature gradient", that is, DPG (distal-proximal skin temperature gradient): the remote temperature is high, the core temperature is low (in short, the hands and feet are warm), that is, when the DPG is large, the sleep quality is good.
This may be because warm skin temperatures can stimulate the anterior hypothalamus, which is the area of sleep regulation. The core temperature of the human body is rhythmic, high during the day and low at night, so it is easy to sleep at night. When people are old, the core temperature at night will gradually rise, lose rhythm, prolong the sleep latency period, and wake up early.
However, this study also does not advocate high temperature long-term foot baths, because this will increase the distal and core body temperature at the same time, reduce DPG, but it is not conducive to sleep. This article recommends a hot water temperature of 40 degrees And a foot soaking time of 20 minutes. Studies have also shown that the relationship between the temperature of the skin surface and the sleep latency is related to age and history of insomnia.
Not for everyoneHowever, if for people with underlying vascular diseases, the foot soaking time is longer and the temperature is too high, it will cause insufficient blood volume in the effective circulation of the whole body due to local vasodilation. For them, foot soaking still has certain health risks. Therefore, not everyone is suitable for foot soaking.
1. Diabetics
Diabetic foot is one of the most common complications of diabetics and one of the leading causes of disability and death in many people with diabetes. Search for terms such as "diabetes, foot soaking" and you will see many Chinese articles that support foot bathing in the treatment of diabetic feet, which are based on nothing more than blood circulation, nutritional nerves and the like.
However, after a closer examination, you will find that the common feature of these studies is that only clinical cases are observed and there is no theoretical basis for proof. In terms of patient selection, it is generally based on subjective symptoms rather than the degree of vascular lesions, and the credibility of such studies that only treat the patient's subjective feelings as clinical evidence is too low.
Diabetes damage is the endothelium of the foot blood vessels, blood vessels can no longer be relaxed and constricted due to the temperature, then hot water can also help blood flow, to achieve the purpose of "blood activation"? Obviously impossible, and cold water naturally does not make the condition of blood vessels worse.
On the contrary, the skin of diabetic foot patients in general is relatively fragile, the peripheral nerves of the foot are not sensitive to temperature due to problems, and normal people feel very hot water temperature, but they cannot feel it, so hot water soaking feet is particularly easy to cause burns. And once a diabetic foot patient is burned, even if it is a small blister, if you do not seek medical treatment in time, it may lead to foot infection, ulceration, and severe may cause amputation.
2. Patients with varicose veins or thrombosis
Varicose veins are a type of blood stasis due to poor blood return to the veins, varicose veins are generally common at the front of the limbs, such as the hands and feet, because these places are the farthest from the heart, the blood flow rate is slow, and it is a problem of reflux disorders.
Is it that soaking your feet in hot water can speed up this blood flow? In fact, the main cause of varicose veins is venous valve insufficiency, the increase in temperature can not improve the function of the venous valve, will only increase local blood flow, and this increase in local blood flow will not only not change the speed of venous return, but will increase the burden of venous return.
The venous flap of a normal person can help the vein complete the return of blood from the lower extremities (above), while patients with varicose veins are mainly manifested as dysfunction of the venous valve (below), in which case increasing local blood flow can increase the burden of venous return. Image source: hp-loksbergen.be
3. Patients with skin diseases such as tinea pedis
Many people think that foot soaking can alleviate the symptoms of tinea pedis, which is actually a misunderstanding.
Tinea pedis is a fungal infection that requires antifungal treatment. Many patients with tinea pedis are much more comfortable after scalding with hot water because of itching, which can play a bactericidal role. In fact, this practice of relieving itch with heat often has no effect, and after soaking, the affected area is not only more itchy, but also may appear blisters. Hot water dilates the capillaries of the foot, which can lead to secondary bacterial infections.
Erysipelas infection induced by soaking feet in warm water has been reported in patients with tinea pedis. For skin diseases that have broken wounds hot water soaking feet is even worse, must be in accordance with the principle of surgical treatment to open the wound dry and ventilated.
4. Children
As we all know, a very important structure of the human foot is the arch of the foot, its main role is to buffer the oscillation of the human body when walking and running, protect the blood vessels and nerves on the sole of the foot from compression, and also protect the brain, spine and chest cavity, abdominal cavity organs, is the human "shock absorber".
This structure is formed from childhood, so it is important to ensure the healthy development of the baby's arch. If you regularly use hot water to soak children's feet, it will bring some effects on the function of nerves and blood vessels in the foot, especially frequent foot soaking or hot feet will cause the ligaments on the soles of the child's feet to become loose, which is not conducive to the formation and maintenance of the arch of the foot, and in the long run, it will increase the risk of forming flat feet.
(The Paper, Surging Paper, Panker, Guokr, Guokr, Author: Vermicelli er)