REASONS WHY INVEST IN PRESCRIPTION ORTHOTICS Fed up having back, knee, leg and foot pains?
Foot pain is often more than just about your feet! In fact, your feet are an integral part of your body and you depend on them every day. When your feet hurt your whole body hurts. It may start with a blister from a new pair of shoes, a sharp stabbing pain when you walk or run or, they regularly ache and inflamed at the end of the day.
As you get older, you might think this is quite normal but there is a time when your pesky foot pain begins to impact your life and your world starts to get smaller!
Healthy feet are vital for mobility. But all too often, we do not place the same emphasis on looking after our feet as we do on other parts of our body. Keeping your feet healthy should be part of your daily routine. Just because they are furthest away from your eyes should not mean you neglect them!
Prevention is better than cure. Once trouble sets in, a painful foot or leg can be totally debilitating and because our feet are so essential for keeping mobile and independent, when something goes wrong it can be a psychological strain too.
WHY IS FOOT PAIN RUINING MY LIFE?
Often signs of discomfort are when you notice that you no longer can play with your grandkids, take your dog for a walk, play a round of golf or, which is largely the case with most folk, your foot pain becomes very apparent when you are at work on your feet all day!
The main cause for these pains is deriving from poor foot structure and alignment.
Your skeletal structures of your feet and legs are off-set either developed due to your genetics or, in most cases caused by years of general wear and tear in these areas.
Misalignment of the foot bones and limited mobility of joints can influence structures further up the body, contributing to pain and symptoms in the knee, hip and lower back.
Basically, when your feet hurt, everything hurts! Regularly, the continual cry is heard – “why and how does it happen?”. The answer is quite simple …. floor surfaces and footwear are the two major reasons.
Standing on hard floor surfaces such as concrete, marble and tile floors for long periods of time can take a physical toll on your feet. Once your feet begin to bother you, the rest of your body starts talking to you such as body fatigue as well as foot, leg and low back pains.
Whether you are exercising, working, performing your normal daily activities or just standing in the same place for long periods of time, your feet will get tired being exposed to hard unyielding floor surfaces. By the end of the day your feet are fatigued and you cannot wait to take your shoes off and relax!
The footwear you wear to perform various activities often are designed to not provide the necessary support for your feet. Usually, the most common areas in footwear are lack of support in the arch area, not enough support around the outer sole/bottom of the footwear and the style of the footwear outweighing comfort!
Wearing footwear that lacks supporting arches or that the outer sole lacks necessary cushioning to absorb the force of the foot when walking on hard surfaces or the fact that fashion continues to dictate thereby directing pressure onto the balls of the feet, are all major factors to the reason why this is happening to you!
WHERE DOES IT HURT?
Having 26 bones and 33 joints in each foot taking a pounding over the course of a lifetime and given that between 1-2 times a person’s entire body weight is absorbed to as much as 3 times when running, it is hardly surprising feet are susceptible to injury. Plus, there are many other injuries that occur via the foot which maybe painless in the foot but can be felt elsewhere in the body.
Collapsed foot arches also known as flat feet, can be inherited or brought on by weakening of the muscles in the feet through sustained strain generated by wearing high heels, aging and/or weight gain. Such condition can case the heel to turn outwards at the ankle. This misalignment can result in grinding of the knee – a common cause of knee pain.
Experiencing a leg length inequality can create a tilt in the pelvis. With the addition of a collapsed arch in one foot, lower back pain will be apparent.
Our feet are like shock absorbers and the ability to roll inward and outward is essential.
Difficulties begin when there is too much or too little pronation or supination or, if it happens at the wrong time when walking.
These are just a few injuries and treatment is necessary to bring balance and harmony back within.
Thankfully! There is a solution to eradicate such pain and bring back the skip in your step!
WALK AWAY FROM PAIN
Since we cannot change the floor surfaces we walk on in life we can however, change what surrounds our feet. Given what has been explained above, an increase in comfort and support as well as additional cushioning to the foot, would be a step in the right direction to relieve such pains. It would inevitably make you AND your feet sing from the rafters!
POPULAR BUZZ-WORD – “ORTHOTICS”
The science of treating deformities and abnormalities in the musculo-skeletal system, traditionally associated with ungainly corrective footwear, has been given a high-tech makeover. A new buzz-word floating in the footcare marketplace … “Orthotics”.
By creating extra support underneath specific parts of your feet, custom made orthotics would rebalance the action of your foot and correct other mechanics of your gait (walking style).
HOW DOES ORTHOTICS WORK?
Think of it this way …. when you start noticing cracks in your house or that the floorboards start to creak, it’s usually a tell-tale sign that the foundations are in need of inspection. You would call in the experts to assess and carry out the necessary repairs. Well, that’s similar to when your body and especially your feet. Your feet are vital foundations for your joints. When pain arrives in your knee, back, ankle joints that’s your first sign that your foundation is in need of some care and attention. Ignoring both the cracks in the house or the pains in your limbs will inevitably only lead to further, and more serious, complications!
Orthotics are frequently used by sports men and woman but their uses go way beyond such playing fields. Orthotics can be used to treat a range of common medical foot problems experienced by 1:5 of the population. In addition to those mentioned above, further foot problems such as pain in the ball of your foot (known as metatarsalgia); soreness in your tendon running from your ankle to your calf (known as achilles tendonitis); tearing of tissue around the heel ligaments (known as plantar fasciitis); pain inside of the ankle as a result of a collapsed arch (known as tibialis posterior) and so on.
Too many people continue to suffer in silence unnecessarily. About 70-80% of the population suffering some kind of foot pain can benefit from wearing custom made orthotic insoles. Having the ability to wear such devices in your chosen footwear means you would not have to give up on fashion trends either! It’s a win-win situation!
Having a pair of custom made orthotics prescribed for YOU only and wearing these every day as part of your regular attire, will provide the much needed support your body requires thereby allowing you to return to your active lifestyle and sense of wellbeing.
REASONS WHY INVEST IN CUSTOM MADE ORTHOTICS
Unlike ‘off-the-shelf’ orthotics which are designed to fit one size for all, custom-made orthotics are professionally designed to provide a personalised prescription fit. The prescription includes assessing levels and body mass along with the asymmetry and unusual anatomy of the person.
Modifications that are necessary to adjust or tweak the prescription would be possible and using materials to successfully fit into your preferred style footwear. Wearing a prescribed custom made orthotic usually speeds the experience of pain relief and recovery as the device has been fine-tuned to YOUR needs.
Custom orthotics are purposely designed to support spine, hip, knee and ankle areas and assist in realignment of these. Daily use of custom made orthotics help to reduce symptoms in the long term thereby eliminating discomfort caused in these areas.
Minor foot deformities such as bunions can be managed by wearing custom made orthotics; for example a rigid custom made orthotic can be prescribed to control the function of the foot and reduce or even eliminate pain in the feet, legs and back. Certain materials are used to acquire the perfect fit.
Even if you don’t suffer from any foot condition, injury or deformity, you can still benefit from wearing custom made orthotics. These would provide you additional support as you go about your daily routine such as performing perhaps high-impact activities like jogging, walking and running. Ultimately, custom made orthotics are for everyone but they do require to be prescribed for YOU only to gain the most.
So, there you have it! The ultimate solution to get rid of that pesky back, knee, heel or foot pains that you have been suffering for far too long!
