Do You Have ‘Happy’ or ‘Unhappy Feet’?

What constitutes Happy Feet?

Aside from being massaged, most people would settle for just not feeling their feet. Our feet carry our full body weight for our whole lives. They’re crammed into all kinds and shapes of shoes (don’t get me started on high heels!). Most of us walk on hard surfaces (often uneven) most of the time. The feet can have problems of their own, but some foot pain results from other conditions. Chiropractic adjustments to the foot and ankle area can be of great help.

Unhappy Feet

Some typical foot problems are:

• Achilles tendinitis

• Bunions

• Heel (Calcaneal) spurs

• Corns/calluses

• Diabetic neuropathy

• Foot cramps

• Fracture

• Gout

• Hammertoes

• High arches

• Hot/cold

• Low arches

• Neuroma

• Numbness/burning

• Plantar fasciitis

• Plantar warts

• Sciatica (affecting the foot)

• Sprained ankle

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Knee Bone…

Foot pain changes the way we walk and stand. The result is different and unbalanced stress on the rest of the body. When I perform a Postural Analysis on a patient, I look for structural imbalances that may affect one’s overall alignment and posture.

Often I see a high hip and/or high shoulder, and point out these imbalances to the patient. While the pelvis is the foundation of the spine, and an uneven pelvis can distort the alignment of the bones above it causing pain in the back, similarly, dropped arches or an imbalanced walk due to foot pain will throw off the structure and alignment of the bones above them – which is the whole body!

In addition to chiropractic adjustments that are invaluable when aligning bones, including the feet, sometimes utilizing a heel lift in one’s shoe can help to provide relief while the underlying misalignment is corrected. Such correction takes time but it is well worth it when the pain goes away.

Flat Feet

If flat feet can keep you out of the military, they can also keep you from many other more enjoyable activities. The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bones and on up… As our arches (there are 3) drop to various degrees, it changes the orientation of the foot which affects the ankle, knee, hip, and low back. The feet don’t have to hurt in order to throw off your posture and put stress on the joints of your legs and back.

What’s the Best Foot Support?

Here at Root Cause Medical Clinic, we routinely perform foot scans on patients to ascertain the condition of their foot arches. On each individual, one foot can be different from the other, and it is common to have some degree of arch drop on one foot or the other.

If so, we find patients benefit greatly from a custom-made soft orthotic that fits into their shoes. These orthotics are very comfortable and support all three-foot arches creating better alignment in the lower extremities while relieving lower extremity joint pain (foot, ankle, knee, and hip) and, in many cases, providing back pain relief.

Are High Heels Okay?

When discussing foot health, and how the feet affect the rest of the body structure, we must include comments about shoes. Shoes need to fit well and be activity appropriate. OK let’s discuss my ‘favorite’ – high heels – I’ll try to be polite!

They may look sexy and stylish, but they’re not smart for the feet. They pinch and squeeze the toes (could be a precursor to bunions), put too much pressure on the balls of their feet (metatarsal arch), and push the body forward resulting in compensation to stand erect that increases the lower back curve.

Bottom line – high heels stress the body as well as the feet. Sorry about that ladies but I hear the flats are ‘in’!

What’s the Best Exercise Shoe?

I always recommend buying a walking/running shoe with the softest heel possible for a soft and spongy heel strike. This will reduce the impact of the heel striking the ground and minimize the shocks that reverberate up the body into the spine. Do you know how nice it feels to walk on soft grass? A soft heel will mimic that to some degree.

Some shoes have a bit of arch support built-in, but many don’t. If your shoes don’t have adequate arch support to help maintain proper structural support, you would probably benefit from some form of the orthotic insert as discussed above.

We can help you to determine if support is needed and how well your current shoes are working for you.

Your foot health and proper alignment of its bones (there are 26 of them in each foot) are critical for your overall structural integrity and pain-free existence. It can mean the difference between good athletic performance and extraordinary athletic performance or between being comfortable in your body rather than being distracted by multiple painful joints.

As a doctor of chiropractic, I always assess the need for chiropractic adjustments in my patient’s feet and ankles. Take good care of your feet; you’ll be glad you did in your years and decades ahead. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments. We help the world’s busiest people regain, retain, and reclaim their health, energy, and resilience.