Not walking well lately? Is lower body pain troubling you often?

Several physical conditions like foot pain, knee pain, and lower back pain are caused by abnormal mechanics of walking. Whenever the objective of energy-efficient walking is not met, the individual’s foot, knee and lower back structures are subjected to excessive stress. This leads to an increased probability of developing stress injuries in these tissues. Physical therapy in the form of restoration of soft tissue flexibility, strength, and range of motion of joints helps in bringing about the normalcy of walking mechanics. However, the relevance of custom foot orthotics remains neglected. This is specifically true in the case of developing nations, including India, where awareness of the discipline of Podiatry is still in its nascent stage.

While foot orthotics is a widely used product in developed nations, its utility has not been fully realized in the developing world. Their availability in these nations is also scarce. Custom foot orthotics play an extremely vital role in normalizing the foot mechanics, distributing the weight evenly on the foot and providing shock absorption. This, in turn, prevents and cures mechanical pathologies. Given the fast-paced urban life, it becomes extremely difficult to find time to exercise. In such a scenario, using foot orthotics makes for a suitable alternative. This is not to say that by exercising we can negate the importance of foot orthotics, rather in many of the situations they are a must along with physical therapy.

ideally speaking in order to achieve physical well being one must exercise regularly but simultaneously get oneself evaluated by a Podiatrist to see if he/she walks with an energy-efficient gait

Summarizing the discussion at hand, physical well-being can be achieved and maintained by exercising regularly and simultaneously getting oneself evaluated by a Podiatrist to see if he/she walks with energy-efficient gait. If one’s abnormal foot biomechanics is contributed by non-correctible factors, the need to get customized orthotics becomes more important. In other cases, one can seek the help of a physical therapist to get fix inflexibility and weak muscle issues.

Written by: Mr. Prabhakar Pandey, Foot Orthotist, AktivHealth