Keeping Your Feet Warm: Why Warm Feet Are Good for Mind and Body

Nobody likes having cold feet. But did you know that keeping your feet warm is good for your health and wellbeing too?

Our feet play a vital role in regulating our body temperature. Like our hands, they have a large surface area and lots of blood vessels. These can open up to let more blood flow, which allows heat to flow out of them.

They’re also at the end of our limbs (that’s why they’re sometimes called ‘extremities’) and they have less heat-producing muscle, which also makes them prone to cooling down. If they get too cold, our pain receptors are triggered and we feel discomfort – unless we can put on some really toasty socks.

You’ve probably heard the saying that people lose most heat from the top of their heads. In fact, this is a myth. You’re no more likely to lose heat from your head than any other part of your body – apart from your hands and feet. So while you’ll probably want to wear a hat in winter (particularly if you’re short of natural insulation up top), your best bet for warmth is actually gloves and socks.

Feet can also get cold because of poor circulation, which can be the result of a range of health problems, including arthritis, Raynaud’s Syndrome, diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS), muscular dystrophy (MD) and fibromyalgia. Sometimes, people with diabetes also suffer from peripheral neuropathy, where they get persistent aches, pains or numbness in one or both of their feet.  Keeping your feet warm can help to improve circulation and offer much-needed relief to people suffering from these and other conditions.

Reflexologists believe that the feet are intimately connected to the rest of your body, with the 72,000 nerve endings in the feet each corresponding to different areas. That’s why soaking your feet in hot water gives such an all-round feeling of vitality – not just a good feeling in your feet. It can even help to relieve pain in other parts of the body, and generally reduce stress. Effective thermal socks can give you that foot-bath feeling all day long!

Cold feet often lead to poor sleep. If our feet are letting out too much heat, we may take longer to drop off. Keeping your feet warm helps to redistribute heat around the body so we can slip into a deep, comfortable sleep. A foot bath just before bed works well – but socks can keep the warmth going right through until morning.

So much for physical benefits. But there’s an emotional aspect too. Having cold feet can make you feel tense, irritable and stressed. What’s more, it can be hard to concentrate on work when you’ve got two blocks of ice under your desk, and a winter night out with freezing feet is just miserable. Cold feet can affect your whole quality of life.

Having warm feet, on the other hand, gives you a wonderful sense of wellbeing and security. It may be cold outside, but you’re feeling snug and cosy. Warmth is an essential aspect of Hygge, the Danish and Norwegian idea of comfort and contentment, usually shared with others. When we get together in cold weather, warmth is a big part of the fun, whether we’re huddling around a woodburning stove, roasting chestnuts by the hearth or watching the flames rise on a bonfire.

Source: http://www.celebrityangels.co.uk/article/keeping-your-feet-warm