My Story 7

My perseverance paid off, and a year later, in September 2002, I finally found the answer. Through a search on posture and feet in Google, I hit upon a link to a technical paper - "Medial column foot systems: an innovative tool for improving posture" by Brian Rothbart, published in the American Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 9 months earlier in January 2002.

I read the paper, and was at first totally shocked by the content. The author had traced the cause of flat feet to a biomechanical abnormality with the ankle joint, and described how the body adapts -"Slowly and progressively, strain and deformation patterns develop that lead the patient into chronic pain". I tried desperately to find other evidence or research to support or disprove this work, but I found none.

Hours of searching left me with only one conclusion; no significant bodies or organisations were even aware the cause of flat feet had been identified, let alone the effects of flat feet on the rest of the posture. Although I found it hard to accept at first, I gradually began to realise that I may just have hit the jackpot.

The emphasis throughout the paper was the relationship between an abnormality within the ankle joint and the resultant effects on the feet, which in turn affect the entire musculoskeletal structure. Common compensatory patterns often develop to accommodate it, which typically take the form of inwardly rotating legs that unlevel the hips, causing a functional leg length discrepancy and often resulting in functional scoliosis of the spine. I had all of these!

In my case, all previous chiropractic treatment was specifically targeted at trying to straighten my spine. However, it was now glaringly obvious to me why my situation had never improved - the root cause of the problem had gone undetected and was left to fester, bringing back the same symptoms time and time again, and gradually but progressively leading me to suffer more chronic and severe pain and rendering my body more inflexible.

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