With the sudden drop of temperature, we will usher in the season with the highest rate of vascular accidents and sudden death in a year. Therefore, vascular health care in winter is very important. Li Jun, director of vascular department of Shijiazhuang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Yang Chun, the attending physician, introduced that soaking feet is a simple and easy way to maintain blood vessels. However, many people often encounter foot burns, ulcers and blisters caused by incorrect foot soaking, and vascular diseases of lower limbs make the treatment time long, painful, costly and disabled. Therefore, foot bathing must be properly applied to maintain our blood vessels.

Several groups of people should not be selected.

Children: Soaking feet with hot water often will have some influence on the function of nerves and blood vessels in the feet. In particular, frequent foot soaking or scalding will lead to the relaxation of plantar ligaments in children, which is not conducive to the formation and maintenance of arch. In the long run, it will increase the risk of forming flat feet.

People with severe vascular diseases: For patients with severe arterial ischemia of lower limbs, diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebral infarction, soaking feet for a long time and high temperature will lead to local vasodilation, resulting in insufficient effective circulating blood volume, thus aggravating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular ischemia.

Patients with dermatoses such as beriberi and dermatitis: After soaking feet with hot water, the affected area is not only itchy, but also blisters, ulcers and even secondary bacterial infections may occur.

Patients with varicose veins and edema of lower limbs: Rising temperature will increase local blood flow, thus aggravating the burden of venous reflux and making the symptoms more and more serious.

Fever patients: people with symptoms such as high fever, hemorrhagic diseases, hot mouth and dry tongue.

Controlling time and temperature is the key.

The water temperature should not be too high: it is appropriate to soak your feet around 40℃. If the water temperature is too high, the blood vessels in the feet are prone to over-expansion, and the blood in the human body flows more to the lower limbs, which is easy to cause insufficient blood supply to the heart, brain and kidney. In addition, the water temperature is too high, which is easy to damage the skin of the feet and make the stratum corneum dry or even chapped.

Time should not be too long: it is best not to soak your feet for more than half an hour at a time, because soaking your feet will accelerate blood circulation and heart rate, and too long will increase the burden on your heart.

Be sure to try the temperature by hand: when the water temperature is uncertain, it is recommended to try it by hand, not by foot. In particular, patients with diabetic foot should use a thermometer to measure the temperature when washing their feet to avoid scalding.

Massage the soles of feet: Soaking feet with hot water before going to bed is especially suitable for people with cold constitution, such as those who are always afraid of cold and have cold hands and feet, or those who are accompanied by chronic diarrhea, dysmenorrhea, coronary heart disease, dysuria and other diseases.

Prevention of syncope in the elderly: patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and the elderly should pay special attention. If you feel chest tightness or dizziness, you should temporarily stop soaking your feet and lie in bed immediately.

It is not advisable to soak your feet immediately after a meal: most of the blood in your body flows to the digestive tract after a meal. If you soak your feet with hot water immediately after a meal, the blood that should flow to the digestive system will flow to the lower limbs instead, which will affect digestion and absorption for a long time and lead to the decline of intestinal function. It is best to soak your feet after meals 1 hour.

Wooden basin for soaking feet with traditional Chinese medicine: Many patients suffering from heel pain, insomnia, dysmenorrhea and hypertension often use traditional Chinese medicine to soak feet as an auxiliary treatment, but do not use metal basins such as copper basins and stainless steel basins. The chemical composition in this kind of basin is unstable, and it is easy to react with tannic acid in traditional Chinese medicine to produce harmful substances such as iron tannic acid, which greatly reduces the curative effect of the medicine.