Everyday podiatry

Most feet that end up in a podiatry chair do not belong to athletes. They belong to people who stand all day at work, who walk a great deal on hard surfaces, or who have simply worn the wrong shoes for years without thinking about it.

The signs are familiar: pressure that always builds in the same spot, a bunion that started as a nuisance and became painful, toes that have begun to claw, or an ache at the end of the day in the ankle, the knee or the lower back. Each of them says something about where your weight is going.

Feet do not usually hurt without a reason. Pain is late information: by the time it arrives, the cause has generally been there for a while.

What can be done

The starting point is understanding how you load the foot, and that is what the biomechanical assessment is for. From there, the answer might be advice on footwear, exercises, or custom orthotics to redistribute the pressure that is causing the problem. Often it is less than people expect.

That is what a Podoactiva unit is for: not treating the symptom where it shows, but finding the load that is causing it and changing how the foot carries it.