What Are My Feet Made OF?
A Brief Overview of the Stuff that Makes Up Our Feet
Muscles - Muscles consist of a bundle of contractile tissue surrounded by a sheath. The sheath serves to keep everything organized and together while the contractile fibres are what provides the motive force for all of our active movements and a large portion of our capacity to retain our posture. Excessive use of muscles, such as from doing a lot of work or maintaining a poor posture can tire them, which is uncomfortable. The muscles would be the hands of the puppeteer, which provides the force that moves the marionette.
Bones - Bones are the hard, structural components of the body. They give us shape and provide a framework from which other tissues can be attached. Of particular note in the foot are the bones functions as levers, the way the rest of the foot protrudes in front of the heel and how we pass over it, rising up onto our toes while we are walking effectively increases our stride length and the efficiency of our walking. The bones are the wooden parts of a marionette.
Tendons - Tendons connect muscles to the bones, like the string connecting a puppet to the puppeteer. Tendons also have a sheath that protects the fibres, which is important because they often wrap around bony prominences at joints. This is similar to how you can imagine ropes being pulled around the edge of a box, if the edge is particularly protuberant (such as a joint being out of alignment) the rope doesn't like being pulled around the corner very much.
Ligaments - Ligaments are strong, elastic tissues that bind bones together. They function like the strings that hold different parts of a puppet together. Ligaments can be damaged by poor posture that puts excessive strain on joints.
Retinaculum - A tunnel of connective tissue that guides tendons along their pathway. Think of the little loops that hold bicycle break lines or the pull cord for a lawn mower. If tendons are overused or swollen due to irritation they can rub up against the inside of the retinaculum or become uncomfortably compressed, similar to carpal tunnel syndrome.
Bursa - A bursa is a fluid filled sac that acts to reduce friction between moving parts of the body. They are often located along tendon tracks to help protect the tendons during their repetitive movements. Overuse or poor alignment can irritate the bursae.
Skin - Skin is a protective barrier between our body and the world around us. High use areas, such as the soles of the feet, tend to be thicker and tougher. Skin also contains the receptors and sensors that govern our sense of touch.
Fat Pads - Everybody has fat pads over several bony prominences, most notably the heel and the ball of the foot, where the foot is most in contact with the ground. These pads act like the tabs you put on the leg of a chair to stop it from scraping on a hard floor and they perform a similar function: protecting our bones from clacking up against hard surfaces. As we get older and use our feet more these pads can get worn down or pushed out of place.
Nerves - Information pathways of the body. There are two major types of pathways afferent and efferent. Afferent nerves carry information about the world into our bodies. This can be temperature, vibration, pressure or the sensation of pain. Efferent pathways carry command signals from our control centres in the central nervous system to our muscles so that we can respond to whatever it was our afferent pathways were sensing.
Blood Vessels - A series of elastic tubes that carry blood around the body delivering nutrients and oxygen. Arteries carry fresh blood to our extremities and veins carry depleted blood back to our core. Over time the tubing may become less efficient leading to swelling, the appearance of raised blue vessels, or a feeling of aching heaviness. Compression stockings can often help alleviate these symptoms.
