You might not regularly think of your body as a structure, but it is. A mobile, organic structure with a great many interconnected moving parts. When all the parts of our body are as they should be, these great machines of ours are able to go through the day with little effort or trouble. If you’re not thinking about how your body is moving, it likely means everything is functioning properly.
But when you're experiencing pain, every step you take starts to become thought out and calculated. You feel every move you make, because it triggers pain in your feet, legs, back, knees, or hips. And while your focus may be on those areas in pain, the root of the problem might mostly be on the bottom floor, so to speak. Our experienced Centerville foot doctors at Sunshein Podiatry know what can provide the support you need: custom orthotics. Let's take a closer look.
Why Does Your Foot Foundation Influence the Rest of Your Body?
Whenever you walk, run, or even stand, you're able to do so because your feet distribute the weight of your body in a stable manner. While a house doesn’t move, its foundation also supports its structure. But if that foundation becomes unstable or falls out of alignment, you know how this affects the home resting on it. Structural abnormalities have similar effects on your body. While you can certainly develop foot pain or heel pain from conditions such as flat feet or high arches, the effects can run up your musculoskeletal structure.
Let’s start at the bottom. Your feet are tasked with supporting and properly distributing your weight, and that can be quite a lot! For every pound you weigh, about four pounds of force need to be handled by your feet whenever you move. And that’s every step. So, a problem with your foot structure changes the distribution of weight across the foot, and leads to a higher concentration of stress in areas that aren’t built to handle it. This increases the risk of painful foot problems such as plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinitis.
But that's not all. A deformity in your foot structure can change the way you walk, also known as your biomechanics. For some individuals, an abnormal foot structure causes an uneven gait. One common instance is overpronation, in which the foot rolls too far inward with each step.
But our feet are not independent pieces of our bodies. They’re connected to our ankles, which are connected to our legs, our knees, our hips, and all destinations upward. When our feet move in an abnormal way, it often causes other parts of the body to shift as well in order to compensate. In the case of overpronation, your legs might begin to rotate inward. Our legs and knees also tend to work overtime to keep us more stable while running. In most cases, you won’t even realize it’s happening, but all these changes place extra strain throughout the body, which contributes to fatigue and once again, leads to pain.
Just keep moving up the chain with abnormal stances and overcompensation, and it’s no surprise that you can end up with backaches, too!
How Can Sunshein Podiatry Help Restore Your Structure With Custom Orthotics?
When many of these structural problems can be traced back to the feet, addressing them there also helps align further up the musculoskeletal system. Depending on the conditions at play, we may recommend one of several different treatments. In many of these cases, custom orthotics will be a strong candidate. A pair of prescribed orthotic inserts—not the generic, off-the-shelf variety—provides the exact amount of cushioning and corrective support where your feet need it most. They can help alleviate excess stress in specific areas, as well as prevent overpronation and other abnormal gait patterns.
Setting the feet back to proper weight distribution and biomechanics will likely have positive effects in areas above as well. Stiffness, pain, and fatigue can significantly lessen or even vanish entirely!
Depending on your condition, and to complement the corrective nature of orthotics, our medical team might also add the following to your treatment plan:
- Stretches or exercises to condition the supporting elements of your body. These not only help improve endurance, but also reduce the strain on tight muscles and tendons in other areas.
- Changes in footwear, physical activity routines, and/or work environment to reduce stress and prevent overuse.
- Advanced treatments such as MLS laser therapy to accelerate recovery of soft tissue injuries.
Our main goal is always to use conservative, non-invasive methods whenever they have the potential to be effective. No two patients are the same. The causes of pain for one may be different from those of another, so we can’t guarantee that back pain and foot pain are always connected.
However, what we can guarantee is that we'll always perform a thorough evaluation and consider all your needs—we call this "listening to your 'why'". This includes understanding your lifestyle, how symptoms affect your daily activities, and your wellness goals. Since 1991, thousands of patients in the Greater Dayton area have placed their trust in our team. Let us help you, too.