Being a Bellevue chiropractor I see quite a few patients who come to see me for their low back pain. I have found that in these low back pain patient about 60 to 70% also have some sort of foot problem that in the majority of the cases can create their pain. In the vast majority of these cases the person with the low back pain has no idea that they even have a problem in their feet. With every patient who comes to see me with any type of low back pain I always perform an exam of these feet an ankles to make sure there is no contributing problems.

The foot is the first line of defense against the ground. All of the stress of your body is pushed right through your foot when you walk or stand. Imagine if your foot was misaligned, what would this do to the way you walk? That's right, it would create a misalignment all the way up to your low back. As I always say, "If your foundation is crooked, all of you will be crooked". But how do you know if you have a foot issue causing you low back pain or discomfort? Lets look at 4 ways to know if this is part of your problem.

1. Look at the bottom of your shoes. Is there wear on the heel of either of your shoes? More wear on one shoe compared to the other shows that your foot bio-mechanics may be compromised. Your going to need to look at a pair of shoes that you wear quite often. This process usually takes a bit of time to happen. This is very similar to wear on the tires of your car. If your suspension is misaligned, over time the tires will start to wear unevenly.

2. Have you ever sprained your ankle? Better yet, do you sprain your ankle a lot? Sprained ankles can be the driving force behind dysfunction in the foot and ankle. As you damage the ligaments connecting the bones the support for the foot is no longer there and the foot becomes misaligned and unstable.

3. Along with your low back pain, do you also have pain in your feet, ankles or knees? Most people do not connect pain in their back with pain in their feet or knees, but most of the time they are connected. Think of the back and legs as a chain. If one link to the chain is weak, it weakens all the other links as well.

4. Do you have flat feet? Flat feet are a sign that a few of the bones that make up the arches of your feet have dropped out of place. Think of the arches of your feet as the shock absorbers of your body. They take all of the stress out of the impact when your foot hits the ground. If you have lost the arch of your foot, this is a huge indicator that your feet are creating back pain.

With my patients my main focus is to find the cause of their pain. Many times low back pain sufferers have bad feet that are the cause of the low back pain. If you fix the font you fix the low back. Fixing the foot consists of chiropractic adjustments to realign potentially misaligned bones and joints, finding if the foot need to customize orthotic or potentially adding in a heel left to a short leg. If you live anywhere near Bellevue Washington and have low back pain, it is important that you find the cause of your low back pain, and know if one of those causes is your foot.