Leslie Smith, a server at Free State Brewing Co., demonstrates her technique for feet relief after her long shifts.

“When your feet hurt, you hurt all over.”

Truer words were never spoken. Just ask Laura Humerickhouse, a Lawrence parking control officer who spends eight hours a day hoofing it in and around downtown Lawrence.

“My feet pretty much hurt all the time,” she says, “especially after lunch, or when I’ve been sitting down for a while. I go to get back up, and I can hardly walk.”

Humerickhouse has good reason to complain. Her dogs really go the distance.

“When I first got this job, I started wearing a pedometer, just to see how far I was walking,” she says. “One day, I saw I logged 15 miles. Then my feet hurt even more!”

Laura and her fellow foot soldiers — like mail carriers, food servers, security guards and anyone else who works long hours on their feet — would do well to heed the advice of podiatrist Phyllis Ragley.

“The foot bone’s connected to the head bone, and there’s a definite correlation with how the feet feel and how the rest of us feels,” she says.

Ragley says tired, achy tootsies respond well to a variety of therapeutic treatments.

“Just soaking in warm, soapy water and doing a little range-of-motion exercises afterwards helps,” she says. “The warmth helps to increase the circulation and give a little bit more flexibility to the joints.”

The market is flooded with foot care products from portable whirlpool baths to massagers to expensive creams and lotions. But do they work?

“Some of them do,” Ragley says. “The foot-soaker machines that have the vibration can be helpful. Foot lotions or creams that contain menthol which, again, adds warmth, can be soothing as well.”

A popular foot care product called Yoga Toes, and various knock-offs, which stretch the toes apart from each other, can help to relieve feet cramped by pointy-toed shoes and high heels. But, Dr. Ragley warns, don’t overdo it.

“A family member wore them to bed without breaking them in — as I guess is recommended — and pretty much couldn’t walk the next day,” she says. “So anything like that should be used a little bit at a time until someone gets used to it.”

You needn’t spend a lot of money on special foot products to make your soles whole again.

“A really simple and inexpensive thing people can do — especially people who have problems with plantar fasciitis — is to roll their arch on a tennis ball,” Ragley suggests. “It’s soft enough, and yet it will give you some resistance as opposed to something that’s just too hard. And there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned foot rub.”

Leslie Smith, who works long hours as a server at Free State Brewing Co., takes a time-tested approach:

“If I can remember, I’ll come home after work and put my feet up on the bed or on a wall with my knees bent,” she says. “Just elevating my feet for a while helps a lot. And good shoes with good heels and a good arch are really important.”

Ultimately, if you pay attention, your dogs will tell you what they need.

“Listen to your feet,” Ragley counsels. “They will let you know what feels good and what doesn’t.”