Keep your feet happy!

Another patient just now, 78 year old healthy, active female, complaining of pain in the L arm when lifting and carrying groceries. Using manual muscle testing, I found several important shoulder muscles, as well as glutes and hamstring muscles, were turned off when standing. Examination revealed a slight degree of pronation in her L foot. Placing arch support in the form of Dr. Scholl’s Molefoam cut into arch shapes, 2 layers, in the L shoe corrected the pronation to a degree, and more importantly allowed her previously weak muscles in hip and shoulder to turn back on and do their job. She then reported that the pain was improved. I gave her some arch exercises, and taught her how to walk properly.

Every day I treat patients with big muscle imbalances leading to pain, tightness, joint problems including arthritis, headaches, TMJ pain, sciatica, shoulder problems, Carpal Tunnel syndrome, the list goes on and on; very often originating with a weak foot or ankle on one side. Often the patient remembers an ankle sprain, knee injury, or some injury on that side, decades earlier. The problem is, sprained joints usually remain unstable, unless actively stabilized with support, and specific exercises. Diagnostic muscle testing pinpoints imbalances and their causes, pointing the way to proper treatment, allowing us to fix the true underlying cause of a patient’s complaint.

We also use custom heat moldable foam orthotics by Vasyli, and these are the best Dr. Leaf and I have found in our combined 73 years in practice (yikes!); the most comfortable, most effective, least expensive, quickest to fit, and longest lasting orthotics out there. Under a hundred dollars a pair, fitted and custom molded.

Ultimately we have found one of the most important parts of treatment for all conditions we treat, head to toe, is then getting a patient walking the way we humans are designed to walk, with a good stride, as well as proper upper body and neck rotation. This re-integrates the entire neuro-musculo-skeletal system, relaxing chronically tight muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and joints, as well as strengthening chronic weaknesses.

This is all actually a lot easier than it sounds, and with some practice, becomes second nature. This allows a person to have better strength, balance, flexibility, and resiliency head to toe, which helps avoid injuries, and slows down the aging process greatly.

Dr. Stephen Tag