Staff Writer
Did you know that the source of your low back pain may be your feet? Look at it this way… the feet are the human body’s foundation. If something goes wrong with the feet, causing gait disturbances, wouldn’t that go all the way up the chain? Feet, knees, hips, low back. They’re all connected.
In the chiropractic profession, there are a lot of references to biomechanics, defined as biological and muscular activity, such as in physical movement from place to place. Restoring or correcting the biomechanics of the human body is a major goal. To get the body moving as it was designed to and reduce unnecessary wear and tear on all of our joints and muscles, finding the source of pain in the neck, back, and joints is vital.
That’s why visiting your local chiropractic office is a great first step to reducing or eliminating musculoskeletal pain. The first step by your Doctor of Chiropractic will be a comprehensive medical history, followed by a physical examination, including spinal and musculoskeletal joint function assessment.
After arriving at the chiropractic office, you’ll have an exam focusing on
The combination of your history, examination, and diagnostic studies helps determine whether chiropractic services are appropriate.
Remember, it’s important to have a gait and posture exam when it comes to foot pain. Naturally, chiropractors can do manual adjustments and other non-invasive therapies, but if the foundation (your feet) is still unbalanced, the pain problem may return again and again.
Many patients ask about over-the-counter orthotics. Although pre-made inserts might be great for some issues, they likely won’t be effective long-term for structural problems.
The reason is that the foot has three main arches: a medial transverse arch, a lateral transverse arch, and an anterior transverse arch. It takes coordinated movement between all three of these arches to make the foot move correctly throughout the gait cycle.
Many over-the-counter inserts or supports only take into consideration the transverse arch. It takes an individualized orthotic – one measured for your foot – to do the job correctly.
A foundational research finding released in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation journal concluded that “Shoe orthotics alone or combined with chiropractic care can significantly improve the low back pain experienced by millions of Americans.”
The research was the first large-scale study to assess the effectiveness of shoe orthotics for back pain instead of foot pain only. In a six-week randomized controlled trial, researchers divided 225 adult subjects into three groups. One group did not receive care. A second group received custom-made shoe orthotics. A third group received custom-made shoe orthotics plus chiropractic care with manual adjustments, hot or cold packs, and manual soft tissue massage.
The results showed that the patients using customized shoe orthotics had statistically significant improvements in both function and pain. The group with the addition of chiropractic to orthotics also demonstrated significantly greater improvements in function.
A Doctor of Chiropractic near where you live or work is a great place to start with any kind of musculoskeletal problem or pain. You can learn more about the role of chiropractors in multidisciplinary healthcare, conditions they can help provide answers to, and the evidence-based research behind chiropractic in this comprehensive report from 2022: Chiropractic: A Safe and Cost-effective Approach to Health.
Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) is a private, nonprofit chiropractic and health sciences university in Overland Park, Kansas. Since our founding in 1922, our mission has been to educate and develop leaders in health promotion and embrace behaviors that empower people to control and improve their health.
The on-campus CUKC Chiropractic Health Center is open to the public and serves patients from Kansas City’s 15-county metro area. Our goal is to provide appropriate chiropractic care and solutions for a better, more productive life for our patients.
#ChiropracticCare #Chiropractor #Chiropractic Office
