That Pain in Your Back Could be
Linked to Your Feet
If your lower back has been hurting, and you don’t remember
doing anything to injure it, the source of your pain could be your feet! Foot
pain is something that many people try to ignore. After all, doesn’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 that 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. Say
you have arthritis, and your big toe joint hurts, so you change our
gait to avoid bending the joint when you walk. Changing your gait changes
the mechanics of your ankle joint, eventually causing ankle pain. This change
in your walking pattern can also affect the whole chain of your 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 you to change the
way you walk, it changes the way the bones of all 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 or ankles aren’t working right, don’t ignore
them! Contact a foot and ankle surgeon for an evaluation. Your back (and knees
and hips) will thank you!
Information provided by The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons