Where does foot healthcare come from?
Professional foot care is a very old profession and can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians. That’s right, as far back as 2400BC people were receiving professional footcare! The Egyptians knew foot health was super important and went to the effort to sculpt out bas-relief carvings of people receiving foot care on the walls of Ankmahor’s Tomb.
Well I for one would agree, we all know how having uncomfortable feet can ruin your day. Feet are so important in so much that we do, that when you have uncomfortable feet there’s no getting away from it.
Treatment of corns and callouses...
Foot health was also recognised as super important by Hippocrates himself in Ancient Greece. Hippocrates said that it was important to remove corns and callouses and then make sure that the problem that caused the corns and callouses was sorted out too in order to prevent re-occurrence of the same problems. He is credited with inventing tools specifically for the removal of corns and callouses.
However, it was sometime before footcare became more recognised as a professional service in its own right.
Foot Health Practitioners are recognised in their own right
One of the first people to call for recognition of foot care to be seen as a specialism was royal physician to the British royal household Lewis Durlacher. He said that footcare should be seen as a profession and it should be a protected title, meaning that not just anyone could administer footcare, but they needed to have qualifications.
The London Foot Hospital was founded in 1919 specifically to produce qualified practitioners, and since then Foot Health has been recognised properly.
Present day foot care is divided into two sections: Podiatry and Foot Health Practitioners. Podiatrists deal with serious problems of the feet including surgery. We don’t have any podiatrists at Soco Therapies, but we do have a Foot Health Practitioner (me!).
Foot Health Practitioners need to have a diploma in order to practice, this takes a year of full time studying to complete and means I know my stuff when it comes to foot health!
Modern day Foot Health Practitioners
Foot Health Practitioners like myself help to maintain feet and keep them healthy, preventing problems from occurring. I also know when to refer you on to see someone else if your foot problem is more serious.
Foot Healthcare includes the following services:
Nail treatments: this includes things like cutting nails, trimming nails, treating thickened nails, treating discoloured nails, treatment of fungal nail infections and sorting out nails that have been damaged.
Skincare for feet: this includes treating callouses, removing corns, treating verrucae, treating cracked heels and treatment of athlete's foot.
Diabetic foot care: it’s super important that people with diabetes have regular footcare. This is because the nerves in your feet can be affected by your diabetes, and you may not notice damage to your feet. Diabetes also affects circulation to your feet, and this can mean that wounds take longer to heal, so it is extremely important to have regular checks on your feet in order to prevent problems and treat problems that are already there.
What do Foot Health Practitioners charge?
The price of our foot health treatments at SoCo Therapies are very competitive. For an initial footcare session we charge £50. Every follow up appointment is £35.
If you know that you are neglecting your feet and want to book an appointment with me (Emily) click on the Book Online button at the top of the screen or give us a call.