om body
Looking after your feet this
summer and managing
painful foot problems.
By Dr Michael Radcliffe
NO MEAN
FEET
Y
our feet are an exceptional piece of
engineering, uniquely designed to support
your bodyweight and function in such a
way that allows us to walk and run across
alternate surfaces, at varying speeds in
comfort and control.
The feet comprise 26 bones each (52 in total),
approximately one quarter of all the bones in the adult
body. Like the hands (which total 54 bones), they
are fully able to swiftly and sensitively adapt to the
external environment.
In addition, movement in the feet is enabled by a
total of 33 muscles and their tendons (originating both
within the foot and from the lower limb) through 31 joints
and supported by over 100 ligaments. Any one of these
bones, muscles, tendons or ligaments in the feet can
become damaged though, through illness/pathology
(for example, rheumatoid/osteo arthritis or diabetes
mellitus), repeated episodes of low grade trauma (walking
and/or running in poorly fitting/inappropriate footwear),
or walking and running with a malalignment of the bony
architecture within the feet and lower limbs, or a single
episode of trauma, such as a direct injury like dropping a
heavy object on the feet.
If we suffer from any of the above, then the bony and
soft tissues within our feet may have to work outside of
their normal physiological limits of motion, in other words,
compensate to enable us to continue walking and running.
These compensatory movements may result in soft
tissues (muscles, tendons and ligaments) becoming
overloaded with forces (arising from our bodyweight
meeting the ground through our feet) that they are
unable to tolerate, resulting in damage to the structures
with consequent pain.The pain game
Pain can arise in our feet whist undertaking yoga if there
is pre-existing damage within the feet arising from any of
these causes.