by Rebekka Kuzichev

Rebekka Kuzichev
Rebekka Kuzichev

Foundations is a blanket term that gets thrown around often. What do you think the foundation of you is? In this case I am talking structurally. What is the second most important structural component of the body? The spine being first of course, it does protect your life source after all. This structure ties into the foundation of our entire skeleton. Your feet. Outside of the spine, our feet create the connect with which we travel in this world. Imagine for a second that children were given tight leather mittens to wear over their hands from the time they were still an infant. Would their hands be able to function the way they should? With any familiarity about neuroplasticity, the answer should be no. The brain is so intelligent that it will get rid of wasting energy on anything our body neglects to use. Did you know you were supposed to be able to spread your toes the way you spread your fingers?1 What would happen if your fingers were unable to move individually and instead moved as a unit? As a runner, I am very familiar with foot injuries, but I didn’t know they were so common in the general and sedentary population. There is an epidemic of chronic foot dysfunction that sets off an abundance of problems up the chain. Foot dysfunction causes gait dysfunction, which causes hip dysfunction, which creates pelvic distortion, which can lead to a stressed spinal column all the way to the occiput and atlas articulation. For example, if the metatarsal phalangeal joint of the big toe became functionally or structurally rigid, the foot would need to turn inward in order to toe off. This would rotate the entire leg internally, collapse the knee inward and distort the pelvis in a different way than a normal gait. Is it important for people to get their feet checked? Absolutely. Even though taking care of feet is not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s important to be knowledgeable about the influential factor the 26 bones and 33 joints of the feet have on the rest of the spine. The second most important thing to understand about the feet is the current crisis in poor footwear. Most shoes are narrow and come to a point for a flattering look, but this leads to loss of control and activation of the intrinsic muscles of the feet which makes the extrinsic muscles of the feet work harder to stabilize.1 Most shoews also have what’s called a positive heel which means the heel sits higher than the rest of the foot. This shifts our entire center of gravity forward from the heel to the ball of the foot. As a result, the pelvis tips forward into an anterior tilt, creating a hyperlordosis in the lumbar spine and a compensation to bring the upper torso posterior and the head forward. See a pattern here? Once we change the natural alignment of the feet, whether it is with footwear or with gait, it has a global effect. Not everyone will want to adjust feet. After all they are feet. However, every single chiropractor should understand the compensation patterns foot dysfunction and improper footwear can have on a spine. Taking care of the spine takes precedence above all. However, if a person has repeated subluxations that aren’t holding, or compensations and imbalances that won’t go away, try taking a look at the very foundation on which we stand.

 

  1. Bowman, K. (2016) Simple Steps to Foot pain relief. Propriometrics press. Pgs 9-41