Painful Toes

Do you experience a tingling, burning, or throbbing sensation in your toes?  Does this condition often get worse over the course of the day? Is it more evident when you are wearing shoes?

Painful toes are a sign that not enough oxygen is getting to the nerves in these remote sites of your body.  The most common cause is that blood flow to these regions is not sufficient.  If this situation is not corrected, it is possible that you will lose all sensation in your toes, and this loss of sensation can spread throughout your feet, so it is a condition which should be taken seriously.

In most cases, poor circulation in the feet is due to the pooling of fluid into the lower body. As we sit and stand during the course of the day, gravity pulls the fluid in our body down into our feet and legs.  This results in fluid buildup and swelling of the feet and lower legs especially by the end of the day.  This swelling is due to the increased pressure inside our feet and legs and this increased pressure also compresses the small blood vessels in our legs and feet.

This compression of the blood vessels results in large decreases in blood flow into the legs and feet, and the further down the leg you go, the greater the decrease in blood flow. Your toes are as far as you can get from the heart, and so they are often the first part of your body where will you will notice the effect of fluid pooling.

Fluid pooling in the legs and feet is normally prevented through the action of your soleus muscles – specialized muscles in the calves of your legs.  These muscles serve to pump fluid out of your legs and back to your heart, and so are often called your “second hearts.”  If your soleus muscles are not working properly, fluid will pool in your feet and legs and you will often start to experience painful toes as the day progresses.

The HeartPartner is a passive-exercise device which retrains your soleus muscles. Use of the HeartPartner has been shown to increase blood flow in your lower legs and feet by up to 50%.  Using the HeartPartner daily (for an hour or more each day) will, over a few months, train-up your soleus muscles so that they can pump effectively over the course of the day, blood flow will be restored to your feet, and the pain in your toes will disappear.