When Your Body Hurts, Check Your Feet

Many Americans suffer from foot pain almost daily, but they may ignore it simply because they think it is a normal part of life. In fact, foot pain can indicate you have a serious problem. Issues with your feet can cause pain throughout your body. If you are experiencing foot issues, you need to seek treatment to improve your overall health.

Your Foundation 

If anything goes wrong with one of the many bones in your feet, it affects your walk. Once you adjust your stride, you can injure joints and muscles further up in your body. For most people, staying off their feet is not an option. Most people take around 8,000 to 10,000 steps each day, so if you have even a minor problem with your feet, you will suffer. Research shows that women have four times more problems with their feet when men do, mostly due to their high heels and other uncomfortable shoes. Correcting these issues often requires medical help. 

Common Problems

Common issues with your feet include bunions, hammer toes, heel pain, and arthritis. Bunions are a bony protuberance on the side of your foot that happens when your big toe is pushed out of alignment and toward your second toe. Heel pain is a particularly difficult problem because you place so much pressure on this area when you walk.  You can develop various conditions that cause heel pain, including chronic inflammation, tarsal tunnel syndrome, and stress fractures. If you ignore these issues, the conditions will most likely worsen.

Treatment

Sufferers frequently go to a podiatrist for treatment, but your chiropractor is another good source of foot treatment. By realigning the bones in your feet, they can relieve nerve and joint pressure and restore your natural gait. They can also stretch your muscles, ligaments, and tendons, which helps your arches and your heel. Your chiropractor can also fit you with orthotics to support and realign your foot. Once you are walking normally, your leg, lower back, and upper back pain may lessen or even disappear.

When your feet hurt, you simply cannot function the way that you should. Unless you are in a position to prop your feet up all day, you will suffer while at your job and when you work at home. You should never ignore your poor aching feet because the discomfort is often masking a real problem. Consult with your chiropractor to find out what treatment will help relieve your foot pain. You may well find that your other aches and pains improve as well.