How Your Health May Be Affected By Flat Feet

April 12, 2017
By: GraMedica Team
You know you have a foot alignment issue or flat feet. No big deal right? Isn’t the only possible symptom some pain in your feet and occasional discomfort? Aren’t painful flat feet rare in the first place? Why should you even care about issues with flat feet? Not so fast. Some clarity on this topic would be good, and it’s important to know all of the facts. While it is estimated that only about 20% of people with flat or misaligned feet have pain in their feet, there are other places in the body where pain can show up if you don’t seek treatment. Not only that, but other areas of your health could be affected by not being able to exercise due to pain in your body. Let’s look at the three main areas of your health that can be affected by having flat or misaligned feet:

Foot Related Conditions

The most obvious place to look first would be issues with the feet. Flat or misaligned feet left untreated can cause pain, discomfort, and other symptoms such as:
  • Bunions
  • Hammertoes
  • Big Toe Joint Issues such as loss of normal range of motion
  • Plantar Fasciitis
  • Heel Pain
  • Metatarsalgia –pain in the ball of the foot
  • Nerve Pain (Morton’s Neuroma & Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome)
Issues you may notice in your feet could also include inflammation in ligaments that are under pressure as a result of the bones being out of line in your foot. While a lot of these symptoms will likely be obvious and easily diagnosable, you should look at other symptoms that may be showing up in your body as well.

Problems with the Lower Body and Back

Your feet are the foundation of the body. They help to set the structure for the rest of your body. Misaligned or flat feet can cause other parts of the body to also become misaligned. When the ankle bone and heel bone do not align properly, the leg rotates internally and causes a twisting in the knee. This twisting leads to the hip being pulled away from the pelvis and causes pelvic tilt, leading to excessive strain in the spine. While it may not be your first thought, you can see how hip, back and leg pain can be a result of problems with foot alignment. If ignored and not treated properly, these problems will only get worse with age and wear and tear.

Limitations on Exercise

Another area of your health that may not seem directly related to flat or misaligned feet is in the treatment of common health issues such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. One common treatment for these conditions that is often recommended is exercise, which is good for us all. Unfortunately, when you have foot problems that are leading to pain in the body, exercise becomes much more difficult and you can end up with a harder time controlling and treating these conditions. To sum it all up, your flat or misaligned feet may be a bigger deal than you realized. They could be giving you common foot issues, or leg, back, knee and hip problems. They may also be hindering you from exercising, which is key to being healthy. If you have flat feet and are experiencing pain in your body, you should see a foot specialist.

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