Walking towards Health

Every healthcare professional in the world advocates a good balanced diet and regular exercise to reduce health risks and improve quality of life.  The problem of course is how can you exercise when every step causes pain somewhere in the body.  The answer is not to stop exercising but to learn what is causing the pain and what can be done to reduce or eliminate that pain.  The foot is a very complex entity, it needs to support more than just the body’s weight, it also needs to align the body correctly to avoid ankle, knee, hip and back problems not just during stance but throughout propulsion.  In other words, the foot undergoes constant adjustments as we propel through our gait.  If there is a biomechanical problem which changes the way in which the foot supports the lower leg, then pain can occur anywhere from the ankle to the back.  Think of a house being constructed on a broken, uneven, collapsing slab.  Walls will be uneven, windows will be difficult to open and the roof will most likely crack, basically if the foundation is poor the structure will be weak.  Our bodies are much more complex but the same principle can be applied, if our feet are misaligned then our ankles need to compensate, which causes the knees to adapt, the hips to adjust and finally the back (usually the lower back) has to modify as well.  Pain may occur from the foot to the back and in any or all of the involved joints.  Chiropractors can realign the spine and reduce much of the pain, but with activity the problem will recur without the proper correction to the feet.   A functional orthotic is a custom insert that is built to properly support the foot, to correct the individuals problem and correctly realign the ankles, knees, hips and back.  If a shoe insert can be bent and twisted then it is merely a cushion, a true functional orthotic has a hard core that corrects the feet during stance and gait and needs to be designed to an exact image of the foot.  At our office, we use the Metascan by Footmaxx which measures the various stages of the foot during gait.  This remarkable scanner is capable of recording over a 140 images a second, capturing much more than the physician’s eyes can ever assimilate.  If you are embarking on an exercise program then functional orthotics may be an excellent way of avoiding problems from manifesting.  Many insurance companies cover the cost of functional orthotics.