Healthy feet are important for a healthy life. If you have foot and ankle issues, they can impact your entire body in a variety of devastating ways. Feet serve as the base and foundation for your entire body. If you have foot and ankle issues, they can cause imbalance, poor posture, and sometimes even issues with organ function. Issues like flat feet, ankles turned inward, and other alignment problems can cause serious problems to your health. Our foot health is intricately connected to the health of the rest of our body. Learn more about how foot and ankle alignment issues impact your body.
Warning Signs of Foot and Ankle Alignment Issues
Alignment throughout your body begins with your feet and helps you function properly. When even a small part of your body, like your ankle, becomes misaligned, it can be painful throughout your body and cause adverse effects. Adequate foot and ankle alignment helps your feet hold your weight when you walk and helps you move, bend, and rotate easily.
Are you suffering from foot and ankle alignment issues? You might need medical attention for foot and ankle alignment issues if you:
Sore or Stiff Ankles
If your ankles are frequently sore or stiff after spending time on your feet, without any other apparent causes, it might be due to your ankle alignment.
Knee Pain
Did you know that issues with your feet and ankles can travel all the way up your legs to your knees? Knee pain is a common sign of foot and ankle issues.
Achilles Tendinitis
The Achilles tendon connects your foot to your calf, and travels through your ankle. If you have a misalignment in your Achilles tendon and your feet, it can cause pain and inflammation.
Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis is caused by the disruption of the soft tissue on the bottom of your foot. Ankle misalignment can mean you pull excessively on the foot muscles.
How Foot and Ankle Alignment Issues Impact Your Body
Did you know there are 26 bones, 30 joints, and more than 100 muscles, ligaments, and tendons in each of your feet? When your feet and ankles have issues, it can cause other parts of your body to overcompensate — not to mention cause pain. Foot and ankle pain can have a profound impact on your quality of life. According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, 75% of Americans will experience foot problems at one time or another in their lives.
Back and Joint Pain
If you are suffering from any type of foot issue, you are probably changing the way you walk to avoid hurting it even more. This may be happening whether you realize it or not! The overcompensation and misaligned walking patterns can cause back and joint pain.
Imbalance and Posture Problems
Oftentimes, our feet are the cause of imbalance and posture problems. If your feet aren’t properly aligned with the rest of your body, it can throw off your overall balance. This makes you more likely to slip and fall, which could result in further injury. While most of us don’t have perfect posture all the time, people with foot problems often have even worse posture than others. When foot pain happens, the body attempts to redistribute its weight so it doesn’t fall heavily on the painful parts of the feet. The result is poor posture which can become the norm. The best way to avoid these problems is to address them as early as possible, before they affect your whole body.
Leg Pain
In addition to bones, your feet are also full of muscles, ligaments, and tendons that connect to the rest of your body. Any pain in your feet can also travel into your legs. Your leg pain like calf pain, stiffness, soreness, or leg muscle weakness could actually be the result of foot problems.
Organ Function
You may not realize it, but your feet have an impact on the health of your organs, too. All of the nerves and touch receptors in your feet are constantly sending messages to your brain. If there is an issue with your feet, your brain will receive messages about the problem. Your brain will tell the rest of your body to make adjustments accordingly, including your organs.
Foot and Ankle Issues That Might Impact Your Body
Here are a few of the common foot and ankle issues we see regularly that might impact your body:
Ankles Turned Inward
If your ankles are turned inward, it’s called overpronation. Overpronation is when your foot rolls inward when you walk. If you suffer from overpronation, then one solution is overpronation shoes.
Poor Foot Alignment
Poor foot alignment, also known as misaligned feet, is a condition in which the instability of your ankle bone causes it to slip out of place.
Misaligned Ankle
Typically, a misaligned ankle is caused by flat feet. If you have flat feet, it can impact your health. When you have flat feet, you don’t have the proper arch to absorb the shock of everyday walking, running, and standing. A misaligned ankle causes back pain, because it forces your spine to become misaligned as well when you walk.
Solutions for Foot and Ankle Issues
We specialize in treating a variety of foot and ankle issues at Foot & Ankle Specialists of Illinois.
Custom Orthotics
Orthotics are a worthwhile investment to help your foot and ankle alignment issues. We are the custom orthotics experts and can create orthotics that are meant to fit your very own feet and fix your issues.
Get the Fix For Your Foot and Ankle Alignment Issues at Foot & Ankle Specialists of Illinois
Now, you know more about how your foot health impacts your body and why It is so important to keep your feet healthy. All too often, we neglect our feet and don’t give them the care and attention they deserve. But at Foot & Ankle Specialists of Illinois, that is what we do. It’s time to take care of your feet. Book an appointment today!
