Why are our feet like wheels on a car?

“Foot pain and many of the painful symptoms that people feel in their feet and legs

often relates to an alignment problem”

Michael Sarunic

As a car guy, I love anything to do with cars. I have a couple of budget classic cars (one pictured above) which I’ve been restoring over the last couple of years. Part of the restoration has been changing all the worn steering components.

Unfortunately, when I went to take the car for its first test drive the car was absolutely awful to drive. The tyres were squealing. Every bump in the road made the car jump and it just wouldn’t steer straight. And this was only driving at 20 kmph down a quiet street (so I was safe).

I realized that with changing these steering components I had unbalanced the wheel alignment. So I went to a professional. My local tyre specialist and mechanic realigned the wheels. What an incredible difference correct alignment made. My car was now a pleasure to drive!

What’s this got to do with feet and foot pain?

As a podiatrist, I love looking at the structure and function of our feet and legs.  You see many of the foot pain symptoms that people feel in their feet often relates to an underlying alignment problem.

When your wheel alignment (foot alignment) is out it puts extra strain on muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves and joints. The extra load on the tissues and joints can lead to all kinds of foot pain symptoms such as Heel Pain and Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, unstable feet, ankle pain and easily sprained ankles, knee pain, hip pain, back pain, shin splints, burning feet, bunions, tired aching feet and legs.

So you have foot pain, now what do you do?

The foot pain we feel is usually a symptom and a warning sign that our wheel alignment is out. When your “wheel alignment” is out your feet are not functioning correctly. This can put excessive stress on our feet and legs causing them to work harder than they should. The pain or symptoms we feel is the feedback from your body warning you that those structures are over working.

Correcting wheel alignment and getting the structure and function of our feet functioning well, can resolve symptoms and stop them from reoccurring.

In my opinion, the best way resolve foot and leg pain is to diagnose and address the underlying cause. This means always checking the alignment of your feet and legs to ensure they are functioning in the right place.  Foot mobilisation therapy is a safe and natural therapy that can help you to correct poor foot alignment and put a spring back in your step again. To find our how Foot Mobilisation Therapy may be able to help you get your foot alignment back on track read this article How does Foot Mobilisation Therapy (FMT) help fix your feet?

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