One of my clients recently told me a story about a 92-year-old man who stepped on a nail but didn’t notice he had done so. His feet were numb, had lost almost all sensation.
It was only when he noticed that his leg had started to swell that he asked his wife to check his foot. When she did, they discovered the nail imbedded in to his heel.
The nail was small … but mighty. He had a very nasty infection which resulted in a week long hospital stay. He was lucky to fight the infection and keep his foot and lower leg.
What I found so striking about this story is his ability to still be able to walk around, attend to his garden, walk to the shops, despite having such limited sensation in his feet.
This highlights the importance of maintaining mobility and regularly using our feet, as movement helps the brain receive and interpret proprioceptive information—signals that tell us where our body is in space and how it is moving.
That’s why looking after our feet becomes increasingly important as we age. Something as simple as checking the soles of the feet regularly can help identify problems before they become serious.
And perhaps the biggest lesson from this gentleman’s story is this:
Don’t rely solely on pain to tell you that something is wrong. Sometimes, your feet need to be checked even when they feel perfectly fine.
