Insoles for Flat Feet

Insoles for Flat Feet

By John R Allison
jallison@footMindBody.com

Summer has arrived and it’s time to dress down, hit the beach and settle down and make some treasured memories. First thing you will want to do is get comfortable, shed those long pants and grab your shorts, a towel, sunglasses, and don’t forget the sunscreen. You may also want to consider an alternative to your old trusty stand by flip flops. Flip flops are perfectly fine in moderation; however, those of us that wore flip flops all summer long are now facing the consequences of flat feet. Although an estimated 20-30% of us have underdeveloped arches or some form of flat feet, also known as fallen arches, many of us facilitate the development of flat feet by not having proper arch support in our footwear.

The arch of your foot acts as an elastic spring between the front and rear of your foot, sort of like a shock absorber for the foot. A proper arch allows for the absorption and dispersal of all the weight bearing activities we perform while on our feet. Still, many born with flat feet suffer no adverse consequences. However, since a flat foot is structurally looser, it can be prone to chronic muscle strain as the muscles attempt to keep the foot in a stable position.

For those born with flat feet, the muscles of their feet have likely adapted well to their normal activity level. When activity level increases, pain may also increase.

When the foot flattens excessively, it can trigger an inward rotation in the lower leg bone and the tibia, causing the knees to point toward each other.  The bones of your leg will likely follow along, causing altered movement at the hip. So, ultimately excessive or increased movement of the foot into a flattened position can cause pain all the way up to the knee, hip and lower back.

This brings us to the treatment of flat feet. If the arches of your foot begin to collapse there is help in a custom orthotic which will help support the arch. When purchasing insoles for flat feet, you will want to forgo an over the counter, prefabricated insole. You will want to look into insoles for flat feet that are designed around the contours and minute details of each of your feet. A proper custom orthotic designed especially for your feet will need to be created from a laser scan or a foam box foot impression of your feet.

Wearing the proper insoles for flat feet will give you added support where it is needed in your foot, keep you from over pronating which can make matters worse, prevent further collapse of the arch and offer a great deal of comfort for your feet.

So, for those of us who wish to remain active throughout the summer and avoid foot pain associated with flat feet, there is something we can do. A custom insole for flat feet can be inserted into any shoe/sneaker that has a removable insole. Simply replace the old insert with your new custom insole. Keeping your feet happy will keep your whole body happy. 

Over the years I've done extensive work with diabetes, treating the symptoms through custom insoles and nutraceuticals, aimed at treating the disease in a non-direct manner. Doctor's worked in the same way treating symptoms with traditional insulin injections and prescription pills. However, as time passed, I realized that custom orthotic inserts and multivitamins were only band-aids to the true issue, which is obesity brought on by carb loading.

Our grand parents knew that carbohydrates were fattening.  In fact an article in the British Journal of Nutrition stated that fact.  For over 100 years before that conventional wisdom was that foods such as potatoes, bread, rice, beer, sweets and pasta made us fat.  They also knew that fats and protein did not make us fat.

Since the 70’s, we have come to believe that there was nothing fattening about carbohydrates any more than protein or fats.  We accepted -as fact- that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.  Then the only way to lose weight is to eat less, exercise and see what happens.  Even experts know this approach rarely seems to work.

As I studied to become a disease state manager in Diabetes, I increasingly became aware that what we were taught in the 70’S is simply wrong although we had come to accept it as fact.  I believe that that belief is a large part of the reason we have seen an increase in diabetes, obesity and conditions associated with these TWO conditions happening in the same time period.  I am really surprised at my conclusion, that obesity or gaining too much weight is not caused by just eating too much.  It for sure is not caused by eating too much fat or protein.

Carbohydrates, not fat, are the cause of excess weight, just as our grandparents' generation always knew.  Eating carbohydrates triggers a hormonal response, -insulin secretion- that signals our bodies to accumulate fat.  This is why the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.  Sugar, flour and other refined carbohydrates produce an exaggerated version of this response, and so are particularly fattening.  Exercise alone will not cause substantial weight loss.  It may just make us hungry.  I believe that fat does not cause heart disease.  The same foods that make us fat –carbohydrates, such as sugars and other easy digested carbs (high glycemic carbohydrates)- will eventually cause diabetes, heart disease and obesity.  One of the best predictors of heart disease in waist circumference.  What makes our waist get larger, you guessed it -high glycemic carbohydrates.

The American Heart Association has insisted on calling the low carbohydrate diet a Fad Diet.  But the truth is that a restricted carbohydrate diet was standard practice until the 1960s.  To prevent heart disease, we were encouraged to eat a low-fat and high-carbohydrate diet by The American Heart Assn.  Even without scientific data, this way of thinking and eating caught on.