Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

It never fails when assessing a patient to find multiple areas that "hurt" while trying to deipher the true cause of someone's complaints and symptoms. This can be due to a trickle effect of compensation that develops when an area of the body isn't biomechanically happy.

For example, your feet are your base. Issues with the structure of your feet, your shoes, and your gait have a way of traveling up the spine and into the back, neck and shoulders without any foot pain whatsoever. Treatment of your neck, back and shoulders may give you temporary relief but your problem will reoccur until the soundness of the foot is addressed.

How can a foot actually cause neck pain? You can see in the picture above how a pronated foot can cause the whole body to rotate unnaturally. Your neck and shoulder girdle muscles contract and relax together to the keep the head pointed forward during normal gait movement. Otherwise your head would move in the direction your shoulders point. These muscles depend on the nervous system input of the foot and ankle receptors in order to respond accordingly. Impaired signals from your feet therefore can lead to symptoms appearing in other areas.

The point is you are a whole person. If you are experiencing pain with little resolution, find a health practionier that treats from this whole person approach.

P.S. Give some love to your feet. Build your strength in your foot by going barefoot whenever possible. Limit harmful footwear such as flip-flops, ill-fitting shoes and high-heels. Do this right now as your 15 seconds of self-love...stretch out your toes and give yourself a mini foot rub.

Sources: Cuthbert, Scott. Bridges Between the Asymptomatic Foot and the Symptomatic Patient. Dynamic Chiropractic-October 15th, 2013, Vol. 31, Issue 20.