Published: March 12, 2008 07:36 pm            

A steady foundation: Importance of foot care

JOPLIN, Mo. — Al Johnson’s back hurt. His neck hurt. His legs hurt.

His chiropractor thinks the answer to his pain can be found inside his shoes.

Johnson said problems started after his foot didn’t heal properly following surgery.

“I limped for two years,” said Johnson, of Joplin. “Pretty soon, my hips started hurting, then my back. I had no idea my feet could make my back hurt.”

Johnson said his foot problems threw his entire spine out of alignment and sent him to a chiropractor. Rather than just address his painful back, chiropractors at Carlson Chiropractic Center in Joplin looked to Johnson’s feet.

Using a new piece of equipment, Stephanie Carden, a chiropractic assistant, scanned Johnson’s feet to see where he was putting the most pressure.

“Your feet set everything in line,” Carden said. “It goes to show that everything in the body affects the other parts.”

The idea behind the Foot Levelers digital scanner is that feet are the foundation of the body, and when they are compromised, it sends a chain reaction throughout the rest of the body. Unbalanced feet could theoretically cause misalignment of the spine, which could result in neck pain.

Cynthia Vaughn, American Chiropractic Association spokeswoman and a chiropractor in Austin, Texas, said a short-term foot injury shouldn’t affect a healthy spine, but when people with damaged back muscles start to limp or lean, it can cause things to go downhill quickly.

“The feet are to the skeletal system what a foundation is to a house,” Vaughn said. “They are the connection from the body to the ground and everything that happens to the feet can come up and affect the rest of the body.”

Foot Levelers is a custom orthotics company that uses scans or molds of the foot to design in-shoe supports to correct posture problems. According to Foot Levelers, the foot is constructed of three arches that form a supporting vault that distributes the weight of the entire body. If one of the arches is compromised, the others compensate, putting them under additional stresses.

Vaughn said feet also reveal existing problems in the spine by showing how weight is distributed.

“The foot is how weight is translated between the body and the ground,” she said. “There is a normal foot pattern where the heel hits slightly, then rolls. Improper heel-strike absorption will cause problems later on.”

Carden at Carlson Chiropractic said her office has been using the new digital scanner for two months and has gotten positive patient feedback.

Johnson said it was easy for him to see just how bad his feet and spine were by looking at the color-coded foot map. He also is encouraged to see how his physical therapy and orthotics have improved his foot map.

“This is exciting to me to see the difference it’s making,” Johnson said. “I have no more pain in my hips and that’s huge for me.”



Melissa Dunson writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.

        

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