Back Pain Related to Foot Pain?
Back pain / foot pain related? The pain could be telling a story your doctor may have not have heard. As your body’s foundation, your feet absorb an enormous amount of stress with every step you take. Three arches underneath each foot are the main structures of support. Three arches, not just one. Surprised? So are most of my patients. You already know about the inside or medial longitudinal arch, but we also have an outside or lateral longitudinal arch, and an arch under the ball of each foot called the transverse or metatarsal arch.
If you cross your right leg over your left, and put your hands on the underside of your foot, you can actually feel the location of these arches. You can also feel the big ligament under your foot called the plantar fascia, which acts like a giant, springy rubber band to help keep the three arches supported and intact. When everything is working as it should, the plantar fascia absorbs shock from the ground and the body; it keeps the three arches strong and allows you to walk and do other weight bearing activities with no pain. The three arches are fully formed and mature by the age of six or seven. From then on, factors such as genetics, poorly supportive shoes, sports, height, and weight bearing stresses will start to overstretch the plantar fascia, allowing the arches to collapse or flatten. Most people have no idea that this is happening or has happened because their feet don’t necessarily hurt.
Try This At Home…
How can this cause your back to hurt? I’d like you to stand up and do an experiment. While you are standing, roll or drop a foot in as far as it will go toward the floor. It might be uncomfortable, but feel what is happening in your lower body. Do you feel the stress on your inner ankle, inner knee, hips, and perhaps the pelvis and lower back?
Many locations and types of pain displayed by patients are strongly related to collapsed or overpronated arches. The standing experiment you just did allowed you to feel the pattern of stress or pain experienced by so many of our patients who have lost one, two, or all three of their arches. Flattened or collapsed foot arches can affect patients from the ankles and knees up to the head and jaw. By understanding how flat or pronated someone’s feet are, I can offer an explanation for why back or knee pain can start without any real injury.
What Is Overpronation?
Of the adult human population, 80 to 90% of people have arches that are too flat (overpronating). Once the plantar fascia ligament has stretched out and the arches have flattened, they can’t be brought back. Providing my patients with custom-molded, three-arch, flexible orthotics is the best solution to help manage this condition.
Off the shelf orthotics sold in drug stores can serve some good. If your back has brought you to our office, the level of improvement available from store bought orthotics may only be marginal. A foot scan will determine the appropriateness of custom foot orthotics.
If you have been considering chiropractic for your lower back pain, be sure to mention any foot pain you have or may have had in prior months.
Wallet in back pocket causing back pain? What to do?
Wallet in back pocket causing back pain? Everyone (at least everyone I know) sits, but some people sit more than others. For example, if you are an office worker, there is a very good chance you sit for the majority of your day. Even though sitting has been associated with low back pain by many, research has shown that “sitting alone was not associated with the risk of developing low back pain.”
But (and this is a very big BUT) sitting combined with either “whole body vibration” (WBV) or awkward postures did increase low back pain. In fact, according to the study, “when the co-exposure factors of WBV and awkward postures were added to the analysis, the risk of low back pain increased by a factor of four. … Sitting by itself does not increase the risk of low back pain. However, sitting for more than half a workday, in combination with WBV and/or awkward postures, does increase the likelihood of having low back pain and/or sciatica (nerve pain down a leg), and it is the combination of those risk factors which leads to the greatest increase in low back pain.”
Wallet in Back Pocket Pain
Helicopter pilots showed the strongest association between WBV and low back pain. Clearly, truck drivers, heavy machinery operators, etc. can be at risk as well. Here is a very important consideration: many people create their own “awkward posture,” even if they have an ergonomically designed work station and think their posture is perfect. They ruin everything simply by keeping a big, fat wallet in their back pocket.
In fact, the wallet in back pocket does not even have to be that fat to have a negative effect. Nowadays, we see a lot of people suffering because they keep their cell phone in their back pocket and sit on it. You see, when you sit on a wallet or cell phone, it un-levels your pelvis, which then un-levels your entire spine. This will cause abnormal stress and strain throughout your entire spine, muscular and nervous system. It can trigger low back pain, mid-back pain, neck pain, sciatica, headaches and more.
This is a major reason why some people do not get the desired results from chiropractic or medical care before hearing about me and coming to my office. No matter what the doctors do, if you sit on a wallet (or have other bad posture) all day, it will simply work against your treatments. Many people do not see the connection between neck pain or headaches and a wallet in back pocket or something else that is causing awkward posture.
Advice: Simply put your wallet (or anything else like a cell phone) in your front pockets. Plus, you won’t break your cell phone as often.
Photo credit: 
Saad Akhtar via Compfight
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