Soaking your feet in warm water can relieve soreness, myth or fact?

Strenuous activities carried out for a full day, especially activities that use a lot of leg muscles such as standing, walking, running, and going up and down stairs often make leg muscles feel sore. If not handled, this will certainly interfere with your work activities and productivity. If you run out of pain relieving ointments at home, you can try soaking your feet in warm water. You're not sure warm water can relieve sore feet? Continue reading this article.

Is it true that soaking your feet in warm water can relieve soreness?

You may be one of the people who often goes to and from work using public transportation. In public transportation, you often have to stand up during the trip. The result is what else if your feet feel sore.

Muscle soreness is actually caused by a buildup of lactic acid in the muscles. Lactic acid buildup occurs as a result of overuse of the muscles. Muscles require large amounts of energy to contract. To produce energy, muscles break down the sugar reserves contained in muscles (glycogen). In a state of oxygen deprivation, the breakdown of these muscle sugars produces lactic acid.

Well, this is what causes the feeling of soreness. So, how can soaking in warm water help reduce soreness? In theory, soaking your feet in warm water can improve blood circulation in your feet. Simply put, because warm water can widen the blood vessels in the legs.

The smooth blood flow will make the lactic acid which accumulates in the leg muscles easily dissolves in the blood and is excreted by the body. However, this was not proven. However, it is true that soaking your feet in warm water can provide comfort and reduce pain.

If you want to soak your feet, make sure it's warm, not hot

Although it doesn't reduce lactic acid, it turns out that soaking in warm water can reduce pain in the joints and muscles. According to dr. Bruce E. Becker, head of the National Aquatics & Sports Medicine Institute at Washington State University in Spokane, although it looks simple, soaking your feet in warm water can loosen the joints of the feet thereby reducing inflammation, swelling or pain.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, this therapy, which has been around for thousands of years, is often used to treat pain in musculosketal disorders (a condition that interferes with the function of joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves and tendons, as well as the spine) and fibromyalgia (pain in bones and bones). muscles that radiate to the interior of the body from where the pain originates).

However, make sure the temperature of the water you use is warm, not hot, water that is too hot can increase the risk of burning your skin. The recommended water temperature is 33-37 degrees Celsius. If you have heart disease, water that is too hot can put excessive pressure on the heart. According to the U.S. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, water temperatures that exceed 40 degrees Celsius are considered dangerous for everyone.

Add salt to your warm water

Not only warm water, you can add salt to the warm water container that you will use for soaking. For a salt bath, it is recommended that you use salt containing magnesium sulfate. The magnesium sulfate in salt can relieve muscle pain or bruising.

Based on a survey, about 61 percent of women spend more than four hours standing all day. In fact, standing too long is not good for health because it can cause leg pain. Therefore, after standing for a long time, it is recommended that you soak your feet or body in warm salt water.

Soaking in warm salt water for 20 minutes can relax your feet and help get rid of any pain that arises. In addition, the use of salts containing magnesium sulfate can provide more benefits, such as relaxing muscles, reducing pain, and calming the body's nervous system.

If the stiffness in the legs hasn't disappeared, you can try using a pain relieving cream that is rubbed on to the feet or consult a doctor.