Build Strong Healthy Feet
Click Image for Gallery
Keep Your Feet Healthy – This Book Shows How to Have Pain Free,
Ageless Feet, Banish Aches and Foot Problems!
Best Foot Program Ever! – Foot Dr. Scholl
Almost all of us are born with perfect feet. It's the abuse millions give their feet that makes them limp into adulthood crying, My aching feet are killing me!
The foot is a complex, elegant and delicately balanced miracle mechanism. Perfect balance is essential to foot comfort, and the maintenance of this balance depends upon healthy natural foot function.
Almost all types of shoes made disturb the delicate balance of the feet, to the extent that they cannot endure the jars and missteps in addition to walking on the hard city streets which can upset the normal foot function. This results in either tension or locking of the joints, painful strain in the arches, muscles and limitation of foot motion or a combination of these disturbances. The direct consequence is discomfort: aches and pains in the feet, legs, knees, thighs and back!
As long as you maintain an amazing, balanced foot function, your feet will be comfortable. Despite how out of shape your feet may appear, if they can be made to function at least 85% normally, pain disappears and miracles happen. Soon with loving care, your feet will look and feel healthy and youthful again!
Now, let us demonstrate what we mean by foot function or the coordination of its many intricate parts. Do this experiment now before you read further and you will understand at once the natural or unnatural (as this may be) function of the feet. Stand on one foot (without shoes) and without support, try to maintain your balance for a few minutes. If your foot function is normal, balance will be maintained with perfect ease.
Bragg books are silent health teachers - never tiring, ready night or day to help you help yourself to health! Our books are written with love and a deep desire to guide you to a healthy lifestyle.
– Patricia Bragg
Perfect Balance or No Balance
If foot function is impaired, then balance will be difficult. You will tire in a short time and even sometimes in minutes can suffer leg pains. Observe what happens: at once the inner side of the foot comes into rapid play or action, with slight, constantly fluctuating adjustments necessary to sustain the body balance; the outer side of the foot remains comparatively immobile and your entire weight tends to focus upon that part.
The fluctuating inner part of the foot is called the spring-arch. Its chief function is to adjust for and maintain balance. The outer portion is called the weight-bearing arch and it operates to center and sustain the body weight.
By this simple experiment, you will learn not only the importance of the structure of your feet, but you will also be able to test their condition. The normal, unimpaired foot will balance the body perfectly, with graceful, easy movements and only a slight swaying of the body. The weak, crippled or deformed foot will make violent jerky efforts to balance the body, but will fail! Impaired function will force you to reach for support, to drop the other foot to the ground, or fall in a heap.
The condition of a great majority of feet are between the extremes of Perfect Balance and No Balance. The vital importance of this balancing action of the foot becomes evident the moment we consider the act of walking. While walking, we are continuously balancing first on one foot and then on the other as we transfer the weight of the body forward from right to left and left to right. In fact, it is a movement demanding remarkable equipoise, for the height and mass of the human body are out of proportion architecturally to the narrow base formed by the feet. The equilibrium, in turn, depends upon the perfect coordination of the nerves and muscles and their control of the lever-like bones, fulcrums, bases, angles and shifting surface of the feet. Correct walking is a feat of balancing on balanced feet!
Since most all foot comfort depends upon normal foot function, beware of diagnosis of arthritis or so-called rheumatism when the lower extremities are painful, since nearly all these symptoms can stem from some functional foot disturbance to even overweight and poor posture. For more info., refer to the section on gout, arthritis and rheumatism in the Senior Steps section of Chapter Six.
Causes of Broken Arches
Nearly all foot troubles are the result of various injuries. The most common injury is caused by shoes that do not properly conform to the foot and hence, do not permit free and natural foot performance. Quite often, students are surprised when we tell them that their feet are not functioning normally. It is hard to make them understand that bones are actually dislocated. The reason this bone displacement occurs is simple and plausible. The feet, relative to their size, do more work than any other part of the body. They are subjected to injury every day.
Wrong ill-fitting shoes, missteps, sprains, pounding on hard sidewalks, etc. all take their toll! The cumulative effect of all this punishment finally displaces the bones, upsets the balanced function and pain is the result. The body's walking gear is slowly being put out of adjustment!
Bad Walking Habits Bring Miseries
One of the early signs is the eversion, or outward turning of the foot. From here serious foot troubles start! We are walking out of natural foot and body balance. This affects all of the bones and nerves of the feet, and in turn the ankle, calf, knee and hip. This results in the knee being thrown out of balance, as well as thighs, etc. The hip and lower spine are pushed out of alignment. The trouble travels up the spine, also resulting in misplacement of shoulders and head. Pains and miseries are felt throughout the body. This may be expected, when the feet are out of balance.