Let's talk about the knowledge of blood vessels in human lower limbs first.

The blood in the artery starts from the heart and flows to the legs and feet. It is rich in nutrition and oxygen. Through capillaries, blood carries metabolites (garbage) through venous blood and returns to the heart. The blood vessels in the legs are distributed like branches, all over the muscles and skin.

If the artery dilates, the blood flow of nutrient artery will increase; If the vein dilates, the venous blood carrying garbage will stagnate.

When soaking feet, due to the warm effect of water, the local temperature of feet rises, which leads to the expansion of arteries, especially skin blood vessels-the saying of "promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis" roughly comes from this.

After testing, healthy people soak their feet in warm water at 40℃-45℃ for 30-40 minutes, and the whole body blood flow increases by 10- 13 times for women and 18 times for men.

According to the meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine, there are 66 acupoints below the ankle starting from the Sanyin meridian (spleen, liver and kidney). In the view of Chinese medicine, soaking feet with hot water, just like moxa stick moxibustion, has the functions of promoting blood circulation, warming viscera, strengthening body and preventing diseases.

Soaking feet is good, but it's not so magical.

1. Treat diseases?

Don't! The local circulation caused by hot water soaking feet in a short time will hardly affect the whole body circulation, or even affect the core body temperature like bathing or showering.

So for healthy people, soaking feet may not cause much physical changes, so it is useless to expect soaking feet to treat various diseases.

2. Help sleep?

It varies from person to person. For healthy people, low-temperature short-time foot bath is helpful to sleep, but it has little effect on the elderly and people with poor sleep.

Soaking feet for a long time at high temperature will also increase the body temperature of the tip and core at the same time, which is not conducive to sleep.

On the contrary, if the bubble is wrong, it will be wrong. ...

1. Affect blood flow

When the feet are soaked in hot water, the blood vessels around the legs and feet will expand and the blood flow of the skin of the feet will increase due to the increase of environmental temperature.

2. Children will get flat feet.

The arch of the foot began to form in childhood. If children are often soaked in hot water, it will have some influence on the function of nerves and blood vessels in their 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.

3. There is the possibility of beriberi infection.

After patients with dermatoses such as beriberi soak their feet in hot water, the affected area is not only more itchy, but also blisters may appear, which may also lead to secondary bacterial infection.

4. The varicose veins are more serious.

For patients with varicose veins, the increase of temperature will increase the local blood flow, thus increasing the burden of venous reflux.

When the feet are soaked in hot water, the arteries of the lower limbs dilate, especially when the skin is congested, more arterial blood enters the lower limbs; However, the reflux capacity of vein will not increase.

Therefore, for patients with venous diseases with poor reflux or obstruction, soaking feet with hot water will aggravate blood stasis; In addition, hot water soaking feet can also cause capillary rupture and form bleeding spots on the skin; After a long time, pigmentation will form and the color of the calf will turn black;

If patients with venous thrombosis are taking anticoagulants, the bleeding will be more serious.

5. Diabetic patients face amputation.

Affected by long-term hyperglycemia, diabetic patients are prone to vascular and neuropathy in their lower limbs. Foot neuropathy can lead to numbness and hypoesthesia of limbs. Some patients show that their legs and feet feel particularly cold and are afraid of cold.

Therefore, hot water soaking feet can easily become a comfortable choice. Tragically, once there is neuropathy, the patient's sensory feedback mechanism on pain and water temperature fails, and he can't accurately perceive the temperature when soaking his feet. He often keeps heating the water, even though he has been severely burned.

Once the diabetic foot is scalded, even a small blister may lead to foot infection, ulceration and even amputation if it is not treated in time.

Special reminder, when you find a lower limb chills or abnormal skin color, you should seek medical advice as soon as possible, especially for patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

This is how you soak your feet.

1. Since it is a foot bath, it is necessary to embody the word "bubble". The "bubble" here means more water, enough heat and a long time. You can't take a basin and put some water in it. That won't help you stay healthy. At most, I wash my feet, not soak them.

2. The water temperature should not be too high. Many people think that the higher the water temperature, the better as long as it is within their tolerance, but it is not. In fact, the foot bath water should not be too hot, and about 40℃ is appropriate.

If the water temperature is too high, the blood vessels in both feet are prone to over-expansion, and more blood in the human body flows to the lower limbs, which is tantamount to adding insult to injury to patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

-Hint-

Use! Hands! Try it! Wen!

When soaking feet, when you are not sure about the temperature of water, it is recommended to try with your hands instead of your feet, because your hands are more sensitive to temperature than your feet. For patients with diabetic foot, measure the temperature with a thermometer when washing feet to avoid scalding.

3. Don't take too long. It is best to control it at 15 ~ 20 minutes. If the time is too long, the local blood circulation in the foot is too fast for a long time, and the blood in the body will flow more to the lower limbs, resulting in cardiovascular overload.

Moreover, the winter climate is inherently dry, and the skin is soaked in hot water for too long, which will also lead to the skin being too dry and prone to itching. Therefore, no matter what age people soak their feet, it is best to use certain moisturizing products after the end to keep the skin moist.

It is not advisable to soak your feet within half an hour after a meal. After a meal, most of the blood in the human body flows to the digestive tract. 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 nutritional deficiency. Therefore, it is best to soak your feet after meals 1 hour.

5. Don't read books or watch TV when soaking your feet, so it's easy to achieve the effect of "burning your body back".

6. The elderly should prevent syncope. Because more blood will rush to the lower limbs, people with weak constitution are prone to dizziness due to insufficient blood supply to the brain, and even faint in severe cases.

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

7. You can't sleep immediately after soaking your feet. Rub your feet when your feet are hot, and wear socks to keep warm in time. It is best to go to bed after the whole body heat gradually decreases.