The Foot/Spine Connection
How Your Feet Play a Role in Lower Back Pain
If you’ve ever suffered from lower back pain, you’re not alone. It’s one of the world’s biggest health problems and it’s estimated that 80% of Americans will experience severe back pain at some point in their life.
And while the majority of cases of lower back pain (54%) are being caused by sitting at our desks, only 10% of people actually find out the root cause of their back pain because there could be many factors coming into play.
What many people tend to overlook is how your feet could be causing your lower back pain. This is where your chiropractor comes into play!
Foot Posture Plays a Big Role in Lower Back Pain
While you might not think that a small, unnoticeable problem in your foot could be the cause of your lower back pain, it very well might be.
Think of it this way… your feet act as the foundation of your body. If something is even slightly off, it can cause an imbalance that’s felt throughout your body. Even a small deviation from your normal gait changes the way you walk, move your hips, and carry your arms, shoulders, and back. Over time, these small changes can cause repetitive stress injuries to the muscles and tendons in your lower back, leading to pain.
There are three leading causes of foot misalignment that you can check for:
Overpronation/Oversupination
Overpronation is when our foot strike lands on the inside of our feet rather than the flat sole, causing the feet to bend inwards slightly. Oversupination is the opposite, landing on the outer edges of our feet and forcing them to bend outwards. This places pressure in the wrong area, changes the way you walk, and throws your body out of alignment. Your chiropractor can quickly check if either of these conditions applies to you and help you correct them with education on the right shoe fit and prescribed shoe inserts.High Heels
There should be no surprises here. Over the years, high heels have gotten a very bad rap from women’s health experts. It’s important for you to understand why. High heels cause the S curve in your spine to become more pronounced. This changes where the pressure is placed on the discs, muscles, and tenders of your back, lending to both immediate and long-term back pain.Your Arches
Genetics may be at play here and your arches could the source of your back pain. If you have high or fallen arches, you might be experiencing more lower back pain. These changes in your anatomy could be causing even the slightest change in your gait or stance. With high arches, you also have a problem with shock absorption. With fallen arches, you are more likely to develop overpronation as discussed above. Orthotic shoe inserts may provide quick relief to aggravated arches that are causing lower back pain.
Bringing Relief to Your Feet & Back
When a patient visits our office complaining of back pain and we determine that one of the root causes could be tied to deficits in mobility due to foot pain, one of the first things we recommend is supplemental treatment with orthotic shoe inserts.
Foot orthotics help patients with back pain because they help realign how the feet articulate themselves on the ground. You can think of it as if drawing a stick figure. In a person with normal foot arches, the line drawn from the shin bone to the foot would be a straight line passing between the person’s big toe and second toe. However, the same line drawn on a person with flat or excessively high arches that cause the foot and ankle to pronate (roll inward), would pass through the inside of a person’s big toe instead.
Not only can mechanical problems in the feet cause lower pack pain, but a person can develop other foot problems as well that just exacerbate the problem:
Plantar fasciitis
Nerve pain or numbness in the foot
Bunions and bunionettes (big-toe versus little-toe side, respectively)
Excessive foot pronation (rolling in) or supination (rolling out)
Because all orthotics are not created equal (and neither are two people’s feet), Holistic Family Chiropractic recommends Foot Levelers. Our doctors will work with you to create an orthotic that is custom to your feet, flexible, and fits all three arches of your foot. And during the month of March, we are running a special $50 off promotion on Foot Levelers so it’s a great time to make an appointment with one of our doctors.
Without visiting a specialist, there is no way to determine the cause of your back pain. But as we have seen here, there could be more to blame than just your back.
Arming yourself with knowledge is one of the best first steps you can take towards combating lower back pain. This is why we are also hosting a special workshop on March 15th dedicated to causes of lower back pain. Get more information and register here.
