If your lower back has been hurting, and you don’t remember doing anything that would have injured it, the source of your pain could be your feet!
Foot pain is something that many folks just try to ignore. After all, don’t everyone’s feet hurt now and then? But if foot pain is something that has been with you for quite awhile, it could be causing problems in your ankles, knees, hips, and even your back.
That old song, “the leg bone’s connected to the thigh bone…the thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone” tells the
whole story. Our bodies are like a chain, with one link, or bone, connecting at the joint to another link. Think about what would happen if the first link in the chain was out of position. The point at which it meets the next link would eventually overstress the link and adversely affect the entire chain.
That’s what happens when we have foot pain. If the normal way of walking is painful, we instinctively change our walking pattern. Perhaps we have arthritis, and our big toe joint hurts. So, we change our gait to avoid bending the joint when we walk. But changing our gait will change the mechanics of our ankle joint, eventually causing pain there. This change in our walking pattern can also affect the whole chain of our lower body… from the ankle, to the knee, to the hip, and then to the lower back. When foot pain or a foot deformity causes us to change
the way we walk, it changes the way that the bones of all of those other joints move with each other. Cartilage in
the joints can wear down, ligaments and tendons can be stressed beyond their normal range, and arthritis can set in.
If your feet aren’t working right, don’t ignore them! Make an appointment with our office for an evaluation. Your back (and knees and hips) will thank you!