If you’re one of the 20 million people secretly suffering from a thyroid problem, you’ll never look at your feet the same again!
Today, I‘m going to tell you some things about your feet that might be pointing you in a different direction than your doctor’s been telling you.
WARNING: I’m not saying your doctor is wrong.
I’m saying if you’re having the problems with your feet that I’m about to share down below…you might have something else going on with your health.
Here’s What Your Feet May Be Telling You About Your Health
Symptom #1: Your Feet Are Some Combination Of
Coarse, Dry, Cracked, Flaky, Or Callused
A study was done in 2012 to find out how thyroid problems show up in the skin.
Out of 460 patients, 300 of them had dry, coarse skin.
In another study later that year, the number jumped to 100% of people with coarse, rough, dry skin had hypothyroidism.
Researchers have found that the skin issues come with both types of thyroid diseases…so if you notice you have some combination of thick, rough, dry, flaky, or callused feet, you may want to see your doctor about that.
Symptom #2: Your Feet Are Itchy…
Or Maybe You’re Itchy Elsewhere
Itchy feet are a classic symptom of both hyper and hypo-thyroidism. In fact, you might find that you’re itching in other places on your body – like your genital area, your face, legs, and scalp.
If you’ve noticed itchy feet or itchy skin that didn’t used to itch…go see your physician about it – especially if you’re having the first symptom I shared, too!
Another thing to consider is that itchy skin sometimes means there are other autoimmune problems happening.
You may want to look up a list of other conditions that cause extra itchiness. Don’t ignore what your feet your body is trying to tell you.
Symptom #3: Your Feet Are Numb,
Tingly, Cramping, Or Painful
Lots of times, we associate foot numbness, pain, or tingly/crampy feet with diabetes or with liver disease caused by alcoholism.
Unfortunately, there are a number of health disorders that can cause these symptoms…and hypothyroidism is one of them.
On top of that, if your feet feel painful when you first get out of bed in the morning…
…and if you have numbness in your feet or lower legs, all of these things are signs that something may be happening with your thyroid.
As I’ve encouraged you previously, go get that checked out!
Now…I’m don’t want to run down the whole list of symptoms you need to know about, but I’ll tell you about most of them briefly so you at least know.
Other Signs Your Feet May Be Giving You…
- Smelly feet – Because you sweat more than usual with hyperthyroidism, that usually includes your feet. Bacteria builds up and it’s hard to keep your feet smelling good.
- Swollen feet – Because hypothyroidism causes general swelling throughout your body, you should notice that the rest of your body is a bit puffy and swollen, too.
- Cold feet – If your thyroid isn’t functioning well, your circulation will be bad…and you’ll have cold feet.
- Foot infections – because both hyper- and hypo-thyroidism seem to cause a lowered immune system and a higher likelihood of foot infections like athlete’s foot.
- Yellow soles – If you’ve got hypothyroidism, your body has a hard time processing Vitamin A…which means it’ll build up in your system. The soles of your feet and hands will probably be yellow-ish or orange-ish.
- Nail “differences” – and though this sounds terrifying, it won’t look that way as long as you take good care of your nails. Basically, your toenails and fingernails might look thicker, cracked, darker-than-usual, grow much faster or much slower, be yellow, pitted, or clubbed, be missing cuticles, or even grow detached from the nail bed (rare).
If you’ve got more than one of these symptoms happening with your feet (and some people have ALL of them!), get to your physician as soon as possible so the situation doesn’t get worse!
Hopefully, this was useful to you.
Do me a favor…after you get it checked out, drop me a comment and let me know if I’m just scaring you to death or if I’m really helping you.
My goal is always to do the latter.
