Q: I have very flat feet and am starting to get lower back pain. Could my feet be making this happen to my back?
A: The average person takes thousands of steps a day, a taxing regimen for the feet. They are the foundation on which the body operates. When a foot problem arises, and experts estimate 75 percent of us will suffer from foot pain at some point in our lives, we tend to accept the problem as an unavoidable part of aging. Pain is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. And when something is wrong with a foot, it can take a toll on other parts of your body—particularly your spine—with each step.
“How can foot problems affect my back and spine?”, you might ask. As mentioned, the feet are the foundation of your entire body. No one would argue that building a house atop an unlevel foundation is just poor construction…. Well, your body lives by the same rules of gravity and even subtle differences in the foot mechanics from side to side can get the imbalances started. Repetitious walking or running, even standing for long periods of time, quickly turn subtle problems into large ones, much like a river carves its path through a mountain, it does not happen all at once but sure as rain, it will happen. When other parts of the body start compensating for an unnatural gait, muscles start pulling in unnatural ways. Muscles in the lower back are especially vulnerable. The body, after all, is a finely tuned latticework of bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons working in harmony.
A chiropractor is trained to address problems with our musculoskeletal frameworks and keep our spines in alignment. That means that we are especially focused on the structure of your body, in its entirety. It is our job to find not only what is generating the pain, but what has caused the problem in the first place. This concept is precisely what we are talking about with foot and/or gait problems. If you have pain in your lower back—or in any other part of your body—get in for a chiropractic examination. If the chiropractor determines the source of your problem is in the feet, there are measures he or she can recommend, like orthotics (shoe inserts), or referral directly to a foot specialist.
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