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You probably don't give your toes much thought until you stub one in the dark, but did you know that without them you wouldn't be able to properly walk, run, stand erect or even hold your balance? This week Tidbits peeks below the ankles for a look at all the ways these important little digits allow us to keep an even keel and function normally!

• Of the 206 bones in the human body, 25 percent are located in the feet, with each foot having 26 bones. Each foot also has 33 joints, 19 muscles, 10 tendons, 107 ligaments, 8,000 nerves, and 250,000 sweat glands. There are more nerve endings and sweat glands per square inch on the sole of the foot than anywhere else on the body.

• The average adult travels around 1,000 miles a year on foot, taking about 10,000 steps per day. A typical 70-year-old human will have already walked a distance equivalent to circling the earth four times. The feet strike the ground 17,000 times in a 20-mile marathon run, but even a mile of gentle walking subjects the feet to about 80 tons of weight. Feet must be sturdy, and toes are key.

• When walking, toes are in touch with the ground around 75% of the time. The nerve endings in the feet feed a constant stream of information to the brain. With each step the foot rolls forward, shifting body weight onto the ball of the foot preparing for the next step, at which point the big toe bears the load of the body weight as it pushes off. It’s much more difficult to walk and balance without a big toe.

• The big toe has only two bones while the rest of the toes have three. The bones in the feet and the hands are called phalanges, after the Greek word “phalanx” referring to a tight formation of soldiers.

• Although nearly every bone in the body has an official name, one exception is the toe bones. They are known only as “metatarsal digits #1-5.” A fourth-year medical student at Yale decided to undo the injustice by bestowing an official name for each toe. He called them porcellus fori, porcellus domi, porcellus carnivorus, porcellus nonvoratus, and porcellus plorans domun. In Latin, these names translate as “little pig at market,” “baby pig at home,” “meat-eating piglet,” “small pig that has not eaten,” and “piggy crying all the way home.” Some orthopedic surgeons have picked up on his names, but doctors in general have not yet gone hog wild over the idea.

FEET FACTS

• The average American’s foot is a size or so bigger than it was 60 years ago. Through more nutritional diets, the population has grown in size including the feet, adding support for the extra weight. In the U.S, the best-selling shoe size is 8.5 for women and 10.5 for men. A survey showed that about 35% of people underestimated their shoe size by at least half a size.

• Babies are born flat-footed. Their foot bones keep developing until they become teenagers. From birth to age 12 months, a child’s foot will go up five sizes.

From age 12 months to 24 months, the feet increase two sizes. From 24 to 36 months, they increase another two sizes. That means that kids’ feet go up nine sizes in their first three years. Once they reach four years old, their shoe size goes up one size once every 8 to 12 months. Frugal parents with several kids quickly learn to save outgrown shoes for the next one in line.

TOE FACTS

• It’s much easier to live without a big toe than it is a thumb. That’s why surgeons sometimes replace an injured or severed thumb with the big toe transplanted from the patient’s own foot.

• A common myth is that fingernails and toenails can still grow after you’ve died. This is false; it just appears like the nails are growing because the skin surrounding them dehydrates and shrinks after death, while the nails remain the same size

• That white spot at the base of your toenails (and fingernails) shaped like a half-moon is called the “lunule,” a name that comes from the Latin word for “moon.”

• It is a common myth that white spots on the nail are caused by a calcium deficiency but they are generally just minor nail damage and are nothing to be concerned about.

TOE ANOMALIES

• A woman in India named Kumari Nayak has 19 toes and 12 fingers, earning a spot in Guinness World Records for most toes.

• Archaeologists found a mummy in Egypt with a leather and wood contraption that is believed to be a prosthetic toe. The “Cairo Toe” dates back to between 1069 BC and 664 BC and predates any other known prosthetic by at least 700 years. It belonged to a woman between 50 and 60 years old whose big toe was entirely missing.

• In 1982, Louise Hollis of California saw a news article about the world’s longest fingernails, and decided to grow the world’s longest toenails. When they reached their longest in 1991, their collective length was 87 inches. She usually goes barefoot or wears open-toed shoes. The soles of her shoes must be 3 inches thick to prevent the nails from dragging. Every time a toenail breaks off, she keeps it. Each of her nails is usually around six inches (15 cm) long.

• Toe wrestling is a sport similar to arm wrestling or thumb wrestling. Opponents seated on the ground lock their bare feet with toes and try to pin the other’s foot down over a line drawn on the playing surface. The Toe Wrestling Championship was established in Staffordshire, England, in 1976 by a group at Ye Olde Royal Oak Inn. The competition became popular in Northern England.

Toe wrestling is a sport similar to arm wrestling or thumb wrestling.

• The Loudermilk Boarding House Museum in Georgia contains about 30,000 Elvis Presley artifacts. Among other things, you’ll find a wart, a vial of sweat, and a toenail, all said to have come from Elvis himself. Some experts debate the authenticity of the toenail, however, so it’s just called the “Maybe Elvis Toenail.”

ANIMAL TOES

• Animals can be divided into “plantigrades,” creatures that walk on the entire foot (humans, bears, baboons, alligators, frogs) and “digiti-grade,” creatures that walk on their toes (dogs, cats, birds, dinosaurs).

• The difference between the big toe in humans versus primates is that in primates, the toe acts more like a thumb, used to grasp things such as tree branches when climbing. In humans, it’s adapted for walking, running, and standing upright, but it cannot grasp.

• A normal cat has five toes on the front feet and four toes on the back feet. Polydactyl cats are common, though the extra toes are usually found on the front paws only. It’s rare for a cat to have polydactyl hind paws only, and polydactyly of all four paws is even less common

FINAL FACTS

• It takes 12-18 months for a toenail to completely regrow. • Toenails are twice as thick as fingernails. • Eighty percent of Americans over age 21 have reported having a foot ailment at some point in their lives. • About five percent of people complain of ingrown toenails, that painful condition where the edge of the toenail grows into the surrounding skin. • Primates, including humans, are the only animals with nails rather than harder claws. • Your toenails hold all kinds of clues to your overall health, including whether you're anemic (spoon-shaped indentations) or have poor blood circulation (hairless toes) or psoriasis (pits in the nail surface). • Women are four times more likely to have foot problems compared to men. This is primarily attributed to the fact that women wear high heels. □