Foot Solutions: Getting Older Is Not For The Week!
By Anthony Allen, CPED
The source of the problem
“Getting older is not for the weak, or for sissies!” is something that I hear at least once a month during my foot evaluations with my patients here is Tucson. Everybody here in the Tucson desert knows that as we get older, we might feel the onset of arthritis, become unstable and lose balance, and/or start having pain and problems that were not there before. They just seem to creep up on you.
There are many reasons foot problems develop as we age such as having injuries or accidents, including those born with congenital defects. But it turns out that just living long enough is sometimes the reason we have issues. Nothing lasts forever, especially our bodies and the strength of the connective tissues such as ligaments, tendons, muscles and other structures that support your whole body.
Everybody is born a little different, and because of that, we all feel different aches and pains as our body’s begin to break down as we age. The one thing we have in common is our bodies change as time passes.
Sadly, our feet don’t last forever; they break down differently for everybody based on injuries, accidents, and even genetics. Some people are born with a little extra flexibility and ligament laxity, and as their feet spread out, this makes their joints slip out of alignment creating uneven wear and tear resulting in arthritis or worse. Damaged joints, muscle and tendon problems, or unstable walking patterns that distribute the weight through the wrong part of your feet causing uncomfortable hot spots and callous build ups.
Aches and pains and potential foot solutions for them.
As a Certified Pedorthist, I often recommend custom orthotics for a lot of foot and foot related problems that affect the ankles, knees hips and back. By supporting your feet properly, it helps realign your skeletal structures and helps in restoring proper biomechanics and taking stress off the worn and damaged areas of your body.
If you can restore things back to a point that they used to be in when you were younger, you’re giving your body a chance to heal and by wearing the right shoes and supports, stay healed.
Foot care solutions testimonial
Here is a testimonial from a patient who was wearing orthotics for heel pain, probably the most common problem people come to me for along with a small explanation.
“I have been plagued with severe pain in my left heel, like there was a burning nail in the heel of my left foot…a pair of custom-made orthotics and the pain was 100% gone and I’m please to say that after a few months it has never back.” – E. Martinez
This patient was diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis. He felt pain while walking for extended periods of time and during taking his first few steps after resting or sleeping. This condition is caused by your arches spreading out and causing tension on a weak connection point of the fascia on the inside of your heel bone underneath your foot. This creates micro tears every time he takes a step and over-pronates, spreading out further than your foot should spread and creating the damage. Solution: Custom Orthotics hold the arches up and together to minimize the arch spreading and help aid in the healing process and preventing the problem from coming back.
