Your alarm goes off early in the morning to start your day. You start thinking about everything that you need to get done today, when it happens. Your feet hit the floor and something feels wrong. You look down at your feet. It looks and even feels like the arches of your feet have disappeared. You start to question what your new day-to-day life will look like now that you have flat feet. But is this even possible?

Adult Acquired Flat Foot

The theory behind adult acquired flat foot is that an adult can randomly develop flat feet over the course of their life. There are foot care specialists that believe that the posterior tibial tendon is damaged which causes the foot to “flatten” at a later age. It is believed that flat feet is caused by an injury, being overweight, or the long term use of steroids. This is a common misconception.

What is Really Happening?

What adult acquired flat foot doesn’t take into account is the fact that if you are experiencing flat feet as an adult, then you were born with flat feet. That’s right, you played soccer in elementary school, went to prom in high school in those dressy shoes, and ran your first marathon all while having flat feet. And it might be likely that your physician told you to ignore it because it wouldn’t cause any problems. When you are born with flat feet, this is caused by misalignment in your feet.

What is Misalignment?

Misalignment in your feet is caused by the heel bone slipping out of your ankle bone. Your flat feet are caused by your misalignment. Flat feet might not be the only thing that is caused by the misalignment in your feet. Issues such as shin splints, back pain, knee pain, hip pain, plantar fasciitis or pain while you exercise can be caused by the misalignment in your feet. You see, this causes a chain reaction through your body. The way to prevent or to stop the problems or pain that you are experiencing is to fix the misalignment. You should take the misalignment seriously and contact a foot care specialist to learn more about having a minimally invasive procedure.

So in a nut shell, it is not possible to randomly wake up with flat feet. You were born with flat feet. But you can wake up and see for the first time the physical symptoms of flat feet that you didn’t notice the day before. If you have flat feet now as an adult, you had flat feet as a child. It is time to take care of your feet and talk to your foot care specialist about your treatment options.