How Can I Tell If My Feet Are Involved In My Low Back Pain?
As a Bellevue Chiropractor I have found that 60-70% of the people that suffer with low back pain also have some sort of dysfunction in their feet. This dysfunction, over time, can create and be the very cause of the pain in their back. The vast majority of my patients who present this way have no idea that there is anything wrong in their feet, they just know that they have back pain! In my office I use a digital foot scanner, and biomechanical testing to evaluate every low back pain patient for this problem, and complication
The foot is one of the most important structures in the body when it comes to bio-mechanics. The foot is the first line of defense against the ground. All of the stress of your body is pushed right through your foot when you walk or stand. If there is any bio-mechanical failure in the foot, it has profound effects on the rest of the body. As I always say, “If your foundation is crooked, all of you will be crooked”. Lets look at some ways to know if you have foot problems.
1. Take a look at the bottom of your shoes. Is there any wear on the heel of the shoe? If there is, is it worse on one side or the other? Unequal wear can be an indicator that you have a foot issue that is causing you to walk imbalanced. Now your going to need to look at a pair of shoes that you wear quite often as these imbalances may take some time to wear down the tread. This is very similar to wear on the tires of your car. If the alignment of the car is off, it will wear down the tire tread very fast.
2. Have you ever sprained your ankle? Better yet, do you sprain your ankle a lot? Sprained ankles can be the driving force behind dysfunction in the foot and ankle. As you damage the ligaments connecting the bones the support for the foot is no longer there and the foot becomes misaligned and unstable.
3. the third indicator that your feet maybe causing your back pain, is simply if you have pain in your feet, ankles or knees. Many of the people that come to see me for their back pain also have foot pain. Usually these people do not make the connection between their foot pain and their back pain. It is important to look at the entire body as one big chain if there is any weaknesses within the links of the chain the entire system will fall apart.
4. Do you have flat feet? Flat feet are a sign that a few of the bones that make up the arches of your feet have dropped out of place. Think of the arches of your feet as the shock absorbers of your body. They take all of the stress out of the impact when your foot hits the ground. If you have lost the arch of your foot, this is a huge indicator that your feet are creating back pain.
With my patients my main focus is to find the cause of their pain. Many times low back pain sufferers have bad feet that are the cause of the low back pain. If you fix the font you fix the low back. Fixing the foot consists of chiropractic adjustments to realign potentially misaligned bones and joints, finding if the foot need to customize orthotic or potentially adding in a heel left to a short leg. If you live anywhere near Bellevue Washington and have low back pain, it is important that you find the cause of your low back pain, and know if one of those causes is your foot.
Are you concerned your feet are creating your low back pain? Please visit www.bellevuechiropracticcenter.com to see if we can help.