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Those funny-looking things at the end of your legs are incredibly complex devices. Here's some info that may give you new respect for feet.
1. One quarter of your body’s bones are in your feet. Each normal foot has 33 joints, 26 bones, 19 muscles, and 107 ligaments. (Some people have 28 bones in each foot, and people born with extra toes, thanks to polydactylism, have even more.)
2. If your whole foot touches the floor when you stand, you have flat feet. Young children usually have them, because their foot bones, tendons, and ligaments haven't yet formed arches.
3. It's normal for some people to never develop arches, but flat feet can cause pain. On the other hand, well-aligned flat feet can be helpful, because they support the body's weight over a bigger area.
4. Fully 75 percent of people have foot problems. For example, 60 percent of foot injuries in people 18 and over are sprains and strains.
5. In other, grosser news, 5 percent of Americans have corns and callouses, and the same number have fungal infections of the feet and ingrown toenails.
6. Speaking of toenails, they grow much more slowly than fingernails do.
7. Skin on the soles of your feet is thicker than it is anywhere else on you.
8. Each foot has more than 250,000 sweat glands, and they can produce up to half a pint of moisture a day!
9. Walking is the best exercise for your feet, and it's also a great way to get overall exercise for your body: it boosts circulation and helps you burn calories.
10. Standing still is way more tiring than walking, because you only use a few muscles when you're still, whereas walking distributes the weight and effort over more muscles.
