Red Feet

Q:  A reader in your column had a problem with her hands and palms being beet red. My problem is similar except it has to do with my feet being red. They are red on the top and bottoms, heels and toes. Sometimes they're very red and other times blotchy. My family doctor checked my legs and feet for circulation and said that it was fine - he didn't seem to be concerned. What can be the cause of this?

A:  If the skin on your feet is not only red but also cracked and scaly, then the problem could be either a fungal infection, an allergic reaction, or some other skin problem like eczema. If, however, the skin seems smooth and normal, aside from just being red, then I would suspect a possible circulation problem. This may particularly be the case if your feet are red when you are sitting down or standing up, and then when you raise your feet, they return to normal color or become just a blotchy red. If that is the case, it points to the redness being due to pooling of the blood in your feet with gravity.

Even if the pulses in your feet (there's one on the top of the foot and one by the inner ankle bone) feel strong when your doctor examines them, you can still have circulation problems in the small blood vessels of the feet. A way to evaluate for that is to get a special test in which they measure blood pressure in your ankles and in your toes. You might ask your doctor about getting that test (which is usually done in a hospital vascular lab).

"Dear Doctor" is a compilation of patient questions answered by doctors from the Medical College of Wisconsin.