Thursday, July 23, 2009

Feet Proprioceptive Information and Shoes

The feet are prepared to receive information from the ground and to send it to the brain. This information is important to produce the brain mecanisms that keep the body in a correct stand-up position.
Shoes may distort this information. One of the most important sources of information in this matter has its origin on the big toe. If you observe a pair of usual shoes, the area corresponding to the big toe only touches the ground if the individual is running, impairing the feet of its source of information while one is standing, walking normally and/or sitting. This fact amputates the information to the brain and it distorts its output to regulate the positional muscles. This may be a factor to produce PDS and all its symptoms.
In order to prevent this situation, we need to wear the correct shoes. The shoes we propose are flat at the big-toe level and have a little depression on the inside to reinforce the big-toe support and allow the toe to be paralel to the sagital plane.
Postural Backpain has been shown to usually reduce or disappear when wearing this kind of shoes.

Note: there are some types of backpain that are not considered Postural Backpain. Nonetheless, close to 90 per cent of all back pains are postural backpain. A differential diagnosis must be performed in all cases.