The foot is an en­gi­neer­ing mar­vel–26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 ten­dons, lig­a­ments, and mus­cles that sup­port your body for a life­time.

In­stead of cod­dling our feet, though, many of us make their dif­fi­cult job even hard­er. We all know about stres­sors such as bad­ly fit­ting shoes and high heels. But did you know that ex­cess weight is al­so tough on your feet? A study of peo­ple who lost an av­er­age of 90 pounds af­ter bariatric surgery found that their foot pain com­plaints dropped 83 per cent.

Here are com­mon aches and pains–and easy foot pain cures to keep your feet healthy and strong.

A stiff big toe:You could have os­teoarthri­tis (OA)

Though ex­perts don't know how many peo­ple have OA of the big toe, they agree it is more com­mon as we pass the half-cen­tu­ry mark.

"Be­cause you push off the big toe with every step, it gets lots of wear and tear," ex­plains Eri­ka Schwartz, DPM, a spokesper­son for the Amer­i­can Po­di­atric Med­ical As­so­ci­a­tion. As the joint's car­ti­lage wears down, it may feel stiff or hurt when you walk, a con­di­tion dubbed hal­lux lim­i­tus. Even­tu­al­ly, the joint may stop mov­ing al­to­geth­er–a painful con­di­tion called hal­lux rigidus. Some peo­ple al­so de­vel­op an over­growth of bone, or a bone spur, on top of the joint, which many pa­tients mis­take for a bunion.

Treat it right: See a doc­tor as soon as you sus­pect a prob­lem, says Bob Bar­avar­i­an, MD, codi­rec­tor of the Uni­ver­si­ty Foot and An­kle In­sti­tute in Los An­ge­les. At this point, he says, you may be able to con­trol the OA with shoes that are long enough and have a deep enough toe box to keep your big toe from rub­bing against the side of the shoe. A rigid sole should al­so help, as it pre­vents your big toe from bend­ing and twist­ing.

At an ear­ly stage, ex­er­cis­es help you re­gain range of mo­tion, says Hyl­ton Menz, PhD, ed­i­tor-in-chief of the Jour­nal of Foot and An­kle Re­search. His rec­om­men­da­tion is to place a tow­el on the floor and put your foot on it, keep­ing your heel flush with the tow­el's near edge. Us­ing your toes, grip the fab­ric, mov­ing it bit by bit to­ward your heel. Re­peat five times. Do this three times a week un­til symp­toms sub­side.

You can al­so ask your doc­tor about OTC or pre­scrip­tion shoe in­serts and med­ica­tion, such as ibupro­fen or a cor­ti­sone in­jec­tion. Surgery is an­oth­er op­tion, says Bar­avar­i­an. De­pend­ing on the type of op­er­a­tion you have, re­cov­ery time can vary from one to two months.

A bump on the big-toe joint:You could have a bunion

This bony bump forms at the base of the joint and push­es the big toe against the oth­ers, caus­ing swelling, sore­ness, or thick­en­ing of the skin, as well as lim­it­ed move­ment. Your genes pre­dis­pose you to bunions (al­so called hal­lux val­gus), but tight shoes and high heels could al­so be a cause.

Though you can de­vel­op a bunion at any age if you're ge­net­i­cal­ly pre­dis­posed (or if you've re­al­ly abused your feet), the like­li­hood is more com­mon as you get old­er. One study found that women in their 40s were one-and-a-half times more like­ly to have bunions than 30-some­things. Those in their 50s were three-and-a-half times more like­ly, from 60 to 69, the like­li­hood rose to six times.

Treat it right: When the big toe starts drift­ing in­ward, you might be able to coax it back to its nor­mal po­si­tion and keep a bunion from de­vel­op­ing, says Menz, who is al­so di­rec­tor of the Mus­cu­lo-skele­tal Re­search Cen­ter at La Trobe Uni­ver­si­ty in Aus­tralia. He sug­gests sit­ting down, plac­ing your feet side by side, and loop­ing a thick elas­tic band around your big toes. Slow­ly pull your feet apart to tight­en the elas­tic. Hold for 20 sec­onds. Re­peat ten times. Do three sets once a day, every day, to main­tain the im­prove­ment.

You can al­so try a flex­i­ble splint, such as Bunion Aid (al­phaorthotics.com), which can re­duce mild dis­place­ment of the big toe. Menz warns that such de­vices do not cure bunions but sim­ply help while they're be­ing used.

If con­ser­v­a­tive mea­sures don't solve the prob­lem, you could be a can­di­date for sev­er­al types of out­pa­tient bunion surgery. Re­cov­ery varies from a few weeks to two months, de­pend­ing on the pro­ce­dure you have.

Heel pain: You could­have heel pain syn­drome

The cush­iony fat pads in your heels can lose some of their elas­tic­i­ty due to ag­ing or ex­cess weight. The re­sult is in­flam­ma­tion and a dull, chron­ic ache in the cen­tre of your heel, says Menz.

Treat it right: He sug­gests wear­ing com­fort­able flats and us­ing an OTC heel pad or heel cup in your shoe for ex­tra cush­ion­ing. Or try ic­ing, says Bar­avar­i­an, who ex­plains that chill­ing your heel re­duces the in­flam­ma­tion that's caus­ing the dis­com­fort. For a quick­ie way to ice, freeze a plas­tic bot­tle filled with wa­ter, he says. Place the bot­tle on the floor, and roll your heel and foot over it for about ten min­utes a day un­til the dis­com­fort sub­sides.

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Are your toe­nails at risk?

Ful­ly 65 per cent of peo­ple age 65 and old­er have thick toe­nails, mak­ing it one of the most com­mon foot prob­lems. Once nails thick­en, they can even sep­a­rate painful­ly from the toe bed. The prime cul­prit is ath­lete's foot, or tinea pedis, which can hang out in your shoes for years be­fore caus­ing symp­toms.

To fight a mild in­fec­tion and be­gin grow­ing new, thin­ner nails, you may need an OTC or pre­scrip­tion top­i­cal an­ti­fun­gal prepa­ra­tion. If top­i­cals don't work, the next step may be pre­scrip­tion oral med­ica­tion.