Depending on where you live, it may have been months already since your feet saw the light of day. While bears may be fit to hibernate through winter and emerge as healthy as they were when they went into the cave, your feet don’t do so well when neglected during this long, harsh season.

One of the main problems facing feet in the winter is fungus. The longer time spent sweating in socks and boots creates the perfect breeding ground for fungus. And once fungus takes hold, it can be months, even years, before you’ll be rid of it for good.

First, let’s look at a few ways to keep your feet healthy. Wearing only cotton socks will help to absorb the additional sweat your foot produces when confined for longer periods of time. At least once a week, soak your feet, pumice gently, moisturize, and dry completely. This will keep dead skin removed, calluses down, revive circulation, and allow them to be cleaned more deeply. (Keeping these cleaning and moisturizing habits up all year long will make sandal season less of a shock for you and your feet, too.)

Should you find yourself with a fungal infection on your feet or nails, don’t despair. Toenails are slow growing so any antifungal will take several months to work -- whether you’re using a natural remedy or patent medicine. It will take time and patience, but you CAN get rid of it -- naturally.

You may have read Dr. Wright’s many uses for SSKI in past articles. Well, you can add curing foot fungus, especially infected nails to the long list of SSKI benefits. Dr. Wright suggests mixing the SSKI 50-50 with DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) and rubbing the mixture in several times daily. It won’t work any faster than patent medications, but it is safer. Just be sure to wear old socks during treatment as the SSKI stains.

Another effective natural anti-fungal agent is oregano oil. If you find it too strong, you can dilute it with some olive oil to reduce its potency. Tea tree oil is also effective. There are some lotions that have both these oils as ingredients and might keep fungus at bay before it takes hold.

Remember that fungus can be more than just an unsightly problem. If it gets out of hand, there is a chance that your toenails will need to be removed completely.

So even though your feet are out of sight, don’t let them get completely out of mind as well. They’ll thank you for it by looking and feeling healthy come spring.

Misled

Q: I know that you recommend stevia as an alternative to both sugar and artificial sweeteners -- but I have heard that it might not be safe, especially for males. Why such conflicting stories?

JVW: Numerous studies have been done on stevia, most in Japan, and none have ever turned up anything worrisome. Natives from many countries have used this herb as a natural sweetener and yet they continue to reproduce normally, grow to average heights and weights, and even enjoy lower rates of cancer than we do in this country.

Still, the FDA is sticking to its story, that not enough testing has been done on stevia to warrant its approval. Meanwhile, sucralose, better known as Splenda, has been approved and mass marketed, and no studies have been done to investigate its effects on humans.

You may hear lots of things, but it’s best to stick with the facts. And right now, the facts all point to stevia’s safety. It’s just the money trail that goes in a different direction.

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What is…Bio-Identical Hormone Society?

The goal of the newly formed Bio-Identical Hormone Society is to restore the use of bio-identical hormones in medicine. The society advocates the use of hormones that are identical to our own -- if hormones are used in treatment, they should be identical to the ones our bodies naturally produce, in the amounts they naturally produce, and in the pattern and time frame they naturally follow.

The organization’s very first meeting will be held at the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, Montana on January 21 and 22, 2005. The focus of this inaugural meeting will be on the clinical use of bio-identical steroid hormones. And the society doesn’t just focus on estrogens – the use of progesterone, testosterone, DHEA and cortisol will also be discussed. The meeting is open to health care professionals and anyone else who’s interested. Meetings will be held every few months and you can keep track of the society’s schedule and agenda at http://www.bioidenticalhormonesociety.org/.

Yours in good health,

Amanda Ross

Managing Editor

Nutrition & Healing

Sources:

Thygerson, Alton. “National Safety Council First Aid and Emergency Care Workbook.” Sudbury (MA): Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc., 1987.