Orthotics

Your chance to become BC!

I'd been looking at orthotics for several years before I came across Sole Supports. My own experience included a period when I was working out intensively, including 30-40 minutes on a Stairmaster. After about half an hour, the arch in my right foot would sag, producing an ache that lasted for a short time afterwards. At that time, I would observe a colleague making plaster casts for orthotics, and it wasn't at all clear to me how taking a cast of the foot as it was, would produce an orthotic that could change anything. I experimented with various options and combinations.

My worst suspicions were realized on one particular occasion. I found that what I believed was a necessary degree of correction could be achieved. The insurance company preferred to go for a local option, the old-fashioned way, paying $400.00 instead of my recommendation, which would have provided 2 pairs for that price! When the client came back into the clinic with the orthotics, he confessed he could barely feel them in his shoes. I had to insert another pair underneath!

I went on a course with Dr Ed Glaser of Sole Supports. He treated us to a 4 hour lecture on 3 joints of the foot, and it was one of the best lectures I've heard in recent memory. He started his career as a mechanical engineer before becoming a podiatrist. Then he could see that the surgeries he was performing, as well as the orthotics he was fitting, weren't helping. With that obsessive quality for which engineers are renowned, he went back to the drawing board. He went over all the research, and realized that to be effective, orthotics had to do more than be comfortable or support the arches of the foot. They have to correct the biomechanics of the foot. They have to allow the many joints of the foot to operate in the correct timing and the correct sequence, so that the weight can come around the arch and then onto the inside of the foot, so that the foot can become a rigid lever again in tim to propel you forwards. If that doesn't happen, the arch sags, the weight stays on the inside of the foot, and there's not much propulsion.

Pete Egoscue, author of Pain Free, notes that back in the Vietnam War, a diagnosis of flat feet was often considered tantamount to an excuse to avoid the draft. He points out that a soldier in the platoon with flat feet can carry 15# less than his able-footed counterpart. That's not something you want as a Marine lieutenant, it's dangerous to everyone else.

On the lighter side, I remember an infomercial for one brand of orthotics (they don't seem to be available any more, but I gather you can pay $500.00 for the identical item as “custom” orthotics). Since a lot of our sense of our position in space comes from our feet and ankles, the argument was that sagging arches could add 3 strokes to a round of golf. I don't play golf – but I can say that good orthotics can add several miles to a hike!

In a church, arches are usually high, with just the roof to support. In people, the arches are low down, and have the rest of the body to support. Even more, that's a dynamic arrangement because the weight moves backwards and forwards over the arches. The forces involved with walking, running and jumping are huge. Problems with the way the foot arches are not managing to do their job properly, can easily lead to pain in the knee, hip, low back or even neck.

With our emphasis on manual therapy at Vital Points Therapy, we don't like to rush into orthotics. It's usually better to see how the feet will respond to manual therapy. In some cases, however, the opposite is true - you'll get much more benefit from manual therapy if the feet are supported, and function in a way that's   biomechanically correct. Find out how you can become BC!

 

Malcolm Fraser, MCSP, PT

Vital Points Therapy