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Flat Feet, Foot Pain and a Simple
Solution
I love to see patients with
flat-feet. In fact sometimes I feel
that I should dedicate my medical
career to educating people about
flat-feet. Flat feet causes so much
trouble for people and they just
don’t realize that in most case it
can be easily corrected with a good
arch support. As a family doctor I
spend a lot of time treating
patients with chronic conditions
they will have for the rest of their
lives. Therefore I love it when
patients come in with problems
associated with flat-feet. This is
one of the few problems I can
actually fix and best of all it
doesn’t require a medication to fix
it.
Flat-feet in medical terms is known
as hyperpronation, meaning over
pronation. Pronation is the motion
of flattening out of the arch as the
foot rotates counter-clockwise
(externally rotates). Pronation is
important because it allows the foot
to absorb shock. In addition,
Pronation also allows all the bones
of the mid-foot to unlock and become
like a “bag of bones”. Being a
loose “bag of bones” enables the
foot to adapt to uneven surfaces
(uphill, downhill, rocky surface,
etc.). In moderation, pronation is a
good thing. Hyperpronation is a bad
thing.
The problem with flat feet or
hyperpronation is that the foot
remains pronated throughout the
step. The foot does not supinate
(soup-in-ate) as the foot moves into
the later stages of the step.
Supination is the opposite of
pronation. In supination the foot
internally rotates (rotates
clock-wise). Supination re-locks the
bones of the mid-foot and transforms
the foot into a rigid lever arm to
provide an efficient push-off and
propel the body forward. If the foot
cannot supinate it remains
essentially a loose “bag of bones”
and you are unable to use the foot
as an efficient, firm lever arm for
push off.
If the foot does not supinate it
cannot form an efficient lever arm.
As a result, the calf muscles have
to work all that much harder in
order to propel the body forward.
This causes fatigue and ache in the
muscles of the lower legs at the end
of the day. In addition if the calf
muscles are working harder they
become very strong and bulky. This
sometimes leads to a condition known
as shin splints. The term "shin
splints" usually refers to pain
along the inside-front part of the
lower leg. Shin splints is usually
caused by an imbalance between the
calf muscles on the back of the
lower leg (posterior muscles) and
the anterior muscles or muscles on
the front part of the lower leg. The
more powerful posterior muscles
overwork the less powerful anterior
muscles as the anterior muscles try
to decelerate the body at heel
strike. This causes excess strain,
inflammation and pain where the
anterior muscles attach to the shin
bone.
Hyperpronation can cause the heel
pain known as plantar fasciitis. The
typical symptom of plantar fasciitis
is severe heel pain when taking the
first few steps in the morning or
during the first few steps after
sitting for a few minutes.
Hyperpronation causes excessive
flattening of the arch. This causes
the ligament called the plantar
fascia on the bottom of the foot to
stretch out too much. The excessive
pulling on the plantar fascia causes
inflammation where the plantar
fascia inserts into the heel.
In conclusion, someone with flat
feet has very inefficient foot
function and this can lead to heel
pain, muscle fatigue and shin
splints. By adding an arch support
the foot is prevented from
hyper-pronating and this improves
the over-all efficiency of the foot
function. Occasionally you can buy
an arch support off-the-shelf that
provides support. In most cases,
however, the off-the-shelf insoles
only provide cushioning and do not
correct the hyper-pronation. Life
is too short to suffer in pain,
especially when the problem can be
easily corrected. If someone is
having pain as the result of
flat-feet it makes sense to spend
the extra money to purchase a custom
arch support that will correct the
problem once and for all. |
