Feet Pain and Back Pain.
A match made in hell.
As I’ve aged, my feet have proved to be much less forgiving than they were when I was 16. As a bumbling teenage skater, I could handle the force of gravity as I plunged my body and my board down a set of 12 stairs, bailing half way and landing on my feet and rolling onto my shoulder, only to get back up and try it again and again.
Now I’m lucky if I don’t twist my ankle or bruise my heel if I step off the curb the wrong way.
I’ve discovered the importance of maintaining the health of your feet. In doing so, I have also discovered a way to keep chronic low back pain at bay.
After all, our feet are only 4 joints away from our lower back. Shock from walking, running, jumping, and voluntarily throwing yourself down a 10 foot high embankment starts at the feet and reverberates to the ankles, knees, hips, and to then to the sacroiliac joints and spine.
This reverberation transmits at a much higher amplitude when your feet are flat, injured, or subluxated. And, this also leaves you vulnerable to plantar fasciitis, bunions, hammer toes, turf toe or a number of other foot issues later down the road.
Your feet are your primary foundation. They hold up the weight of your entire body. The nerves in your feet communicate messages to the rest of your body about their position in space, their movement, stability, activities, and pain. The rest of the body responds to the feet by adapting the rest of the body to forces placed upon the feet. If your feet are “off,” your body and brain get the message, often creating compensations that make back pain worse.
Here is a link to a great stretch for that compressed low back pain feeling! LINK
In addition to these compensations, subluxations, or misalignments, in the joints of the feet, ankles, knees, and hips contribute to more pain because the compressive forces of being active cannot be evenly distributed up and throughout the body – eventually likely leading to arthritis and degeneration.
Additionally, the flatness of skate shoes over the years has not been helpful to the arches of my feet. Flat-foot-edness can lead to plantar fasciitis because the tissues on the soles of our feet become inflamed and painful when they are stressed beyond their integrity. If this sounds like you, orthotics (along with routine foot adjustments), can help manage this pain.
In doing so, it’s common to see improvement in any back pain that you may also be experiencing.
Within this blog we’ve provided you with tools to start getting relief at home. Sometimes problems are beyond exercises and physical therapy at home. If you continue to struggle or suffer, call Jacobs Chiropractic Acupuncture today to see how we can help you get back to the things you love to do. Our phone number is easy to remember! (207) SPINAL-1 (774-6251)
Aaron Vela is Senior Chiropractic Intern at Jacobs Chiropractic Acupuncture center in Portland, Maine. Aaron is currently accepting new patients. He lives in Portland, Maine with his wife and two daughters.