What sorts of feet and back problems have people had and how do they deal with
them or prevent them?  How do you look for shoes that fit?  Are there certain
exercises that will strengthen your arches?  How do you avoid injuring a back
that has already had problems?  How long does it take a back to stop hurting
once it starts hurting?  What sorts of exercises help to prevent back
problems?

93 responses total.

oh goodness, you don't really want me to start with backs and feet...but I"ll
say a little.

back problems are almost completely caused by weak abdominal muscles, so the
best thing is to start doing crunches, both upper and lower abs, about 100
correct a day for maintnence.

for feet, part of the problem may be incorrect walking, it's a bad idea to
let your feel 'roll' forwards, you should lift under your arches if you have
high arches, but not so much that you roll the other way. to strengthen your
arches, I suppose one excersize is to lay a towel on teh floor and scrunch
it up with your bare toes..that should work the whole ball-arch section of
your feet..

Yeah, backs are protected by strong abdominal muscles.  You can get books just
on ab exercises, and that will help a lot.  There are also back muscle
exercises that can help (once the current problems are healed).  Stretching
by touching toes and also by pulling each knee up to the chest in alternation
can help with healing.  Beyond that, correct lifting is very important; ask
any stagehand.  Consider getting a lifting belt, too.

I got a "bad back" pickaxing rocks to make a patio in California. One
moment I was hard a work - in a blink I was on the ground in immense pain. 
It got better, but never totally cured, and I must be careful. I can
usually tell when I'm exceeding my limits, and I have not had a serious
recurrance for a long time. I had Williams exercises for a while, but it
is hard to keep at that sort of thing when nothing seems wrong.

I got "bad feet" by too much Highland Dancing - at about the age people
start getting tennis elbow, etc. I just about creamed all the tendons in
my feet, and the Achilees too. For a very long time my feet just hurt a
lot, and I have never dared return to Highland. I was seen by podiatrists,
etc, and had insoles prescribed, but nothing made a difference except just
not overdoing foot impact.

Maybe two or three times per year, for reasons that are not apparent to 
me, I will have agonizing back pain.  If I stay still, I'm all right, 
but if I get up from lying down, or move around at all, I have stabbing 
pains in my middle lower back.  I don't know the cause.  The solution 
I've always used is to not move much until it passes.

Once I had to call in sick because of it; that day it took me 2 hours to 
get to the bathroom.  Getting into a car to see a doctor was very much 
out of the question.  It was a Friday, and I stayed in bed over the 
weekend, then was able to move (with great pain) for a few days 
afterward, and after a few more days I recovered.  

Be careful with back problems -- there can be serious reasons for the pain!  

For instance. my family has a history of scoliosis -- a genetic curvature of
the spine.  It can be as extreme as the "quasimoto" look, or almost
undetectable unless you know what you're looking for -- but either way, your
back is very fragile.  The mishappen bone sctructure puts serious strain on the
muscles, which in return exacerbate the trouble with bones.  Exercising wrong
can make the whole thing much worse.

If you suffer frequent back pain for no discernable reason, see your doctor
before you start an exercise program to make sure that you don't have a
condition that would be made worse by the exercises that you plan to do.

As to foot problems, aye!

For years I thought I had "bad feet".  No matter what I wore, my feet always
hurt.

The I discovered that readily available "off the shelf" shoes were the problem.
 They just aren't designed with my feet in mind.  I have short (size 7) but
very wide (EEE) feet, so that if the shoe was wide enough (Size 9), it was too
long and the arch would be in the wrong place, as well as rubbing because it
didn't fit quite right.  In addition I have extremely high arches, so most
shoes pinched the top of my foot, and the arch of my foot was up off the shoe.

Once I discovered special order shoes, I found out that my feet aren't "bad",
just wierd.  I haven't had foor pain in a long time except when I let my
husband convince me to try a $2 K-Mart special.  ;)

I have partially collapsed arches.  I got some supports subscribed, which
worked for the better part of a year, but thing seem to have fallen off again.
Never really did help my back problems much.

Well, I don't have bad feet, but I have bad ankles. I can't stand continuously
(or walk) for more than a couple of hours, or my ankles hurt like hell.

I have asked doctors if it's a circulation problem (foot massage helps)
or an arch of the foot problem, and she didn't know but offered solutions
to try in each case... But, I still don't know the cause.

I do have small feet (6-6.5) , and they are a little wider than most.
Maybe it's the arch support problem. I looked for good shoes that seem
to have more arch support (in stores) but how can you tell what is enough
arch support?

if your feet don't hurt after after standing up all day, it's enough. :)
for ankle weakness, try doing things like writing the alphabet with one foot
while it's elevated, or using a 'thera-band' (wide elastic band thing) to do
ankle circles (hold both ends in one hand, put your foot through the loop,
pull the band knd of tight and circle your ankles)

Jim says he thinks it was the coughing that brought on this year's back
problem, he had some sort of bronchitis.  He learned a new way to cough that
does not hurt the lower back - he arches his back backwards before coughing
instead of bending forwards.  For the first time in a few days he is feeling
somewhat better.  He thinks biking is good back maintenance.  He also tried
doing exercises but it is hard to remember when the back does not hurt.
Coughing uses muscles that are not normally exercised - should he be doing
coughing exercises somehow?
        C Keesan - only time my back ever bothered me was when I was strapped
into a very uncomfortable car seat (sort of concave) for a few days - I could
not stand for a couple of days after, it somehow stretched the tendons or
something out of shape.  Does anyone have experience with improving on car
seats, or seats in general that are good for backs?  I have not heard many
good things about those kneeling chairs - one of the problems is that the
padding is just for show and compresses to nothing, putting an awful lot of
weight on the knees.  I find sitting cross legged with something to lean
against is much better for my back than sitting in a chair with feet down.

(The following anecdote is not to be taken as a medical recommendation). At
one time my dentist prescribed Darvon to prevent my bruxing at night. I
didn't like the effect, so stopped taking it. However, the next time I
had a severe back twinge, I tried the Darvon, and the effect was nearly
magical - twinge went away quickly and did not return on discontinuing
the drug. I never did tell my dentist what I used his prescription for....

That sounds like my problem, garima.  My ankle is the one that suffers from
the standing, not the foot.  Though the right foot will start to get tired
and rather sore after hours or days of making up for the inability of the left
to support my weight.

This item now linked to the Health conference.

25 years ago, when I had a job that kept me on my feet much of the time,
I found that I could not wear shoes with heels over 1 inch without 
suffering lower back discomfort.  They felt good to my arches, but not
to my back.

Why do shoes have heels at all?  I find flat ones much more comfortable.  A
friend of mine in Italy who grew up wearing at least 1" heels says her tendons
are too short to wear flat shoes even for hiking.

They don't have to, Sindi -- but elevated heels look nice.  There is a grace to
them that flats like, snd so some people like to wear them from time to time to
suit a particular mood or outfit.  

On the whole, flats are more practical, but often less fun.

My ankles are fine (which is really helpful when playing hockey :) but 
my feet start to hurt after I've been skating for a while.  But, that's 
probably because instead of having the width of my feet to support my 
weight, all my 165 lbs are supported by a quarter inch metal blade.

My new job requires standing for long periods of time, and when I get 
done for the day my feet are very tired.  I'm thinking of asking my boss 
for one of those pads that all the cashiers at stores stand on.  Or some 
sort of insert in my foot

One would think that if elevated heels "look nice" and have "grace", men would
wear them too. Generally only very vain or cross-dressing men wear them.
Therefore I think it has nothing to do with "nice" or "grace", but is
entirely sexual sterotyping.

Men, as a rule, don't concern themselves with gracefulness.  They generally
accentuate other qualities.

When they do accentuate grace, they're called "cross-dressers".

Every shoe I've ever worn had the heal somewhere around 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch
higher than the ball of the foot - not much of a difference, but there
nonetheless. That just seems to be what's available regarding shoes.

I thought I heard somewhere that heels were an invention of the Romans
and were supposed to help soldiers march more quickly.  It makes some
sense in that it pitches the body forward. I just checked my running/
walking shoes, and their heels are elevated, too.

What I read was that heels were invented for wear by men in order to keep
their feet in the stirrups (after they were invented).  In 17th century France
men wore high heels.  Red was a popular color.  You can see paintings of the
king in his red high heels, tights, bloomers, and ermine jacket, with long
curly hair.  Women were also wearing high heels then, but by 1800 the fashio
was for absolutely flat shoes.
        I was referring not to the very high heels but to the 1/4-1/2" type.
Perhaps the heels wear out faster than the sole and were therefore made
thicker.  Who else recalls 'earth shoes', with the heels lower than the toes?

Goodness, the last thing I need is heels to give me even more height than I
already have.

   when at work, i have a tendency to drive by pushing on the
accelerator with nothing but my big toe, which often makes my driving
foot hurt afterwards.  it's a bizarre habit, and i'm not sure how i
acquired it, but breaking it has been difficult...i often don't realize
that's what i'm doing until my foot starts to hurt.

one of the louis of france was among hte first to popularize heels for men,
there's a rather nice heel shape named after him, boots have generally beeen
heeled, but this was more for show, there were chopines which were like really
large platforms which required a maid to help one balance. I"m temI"m fond
of heels because they tend to make one's shoes look more graceful, it doens't
take much of a space to look nice, that adn I have no qualms about 1) paining
my feet and 2) doing odd things for my own socially programmed ideas of beauty
that aren't strictly beneficial 

Well, I used to have arch supports, to combat falling arches, I haven't
used any for a few years now.

Then there is the problem of a herniated disc.  That had me out of work
for the first sick call on record for me, I was out for just over a month.
I was fortunate that being put through the pretzel polka at physical
therapy was able to address the problem without surgery.  I could move and
get about, but it could be time-consuming and painful.  Being house-bound
was helpful, I could use walls for support and get around fairly well even
at my worst.  But without support it was a challenge at first just to
walk to the street and back from my front porch. (About 30 feet.)  It
became a point of victory just to be able to increase the number of times
I could pass between the trees on either side of my lawn.

I am very sensitive to the symptoms now and have spotted the start of a
recurrence on a couple of occasions, I make a point of lightening up when
this happens. I have some exercises that I am suppossed to do much more
often than I actually do, but I also do them on something vaguely
resembling a regular basis, putting me ahead of most people, according to
the therapist.

If, while sitting down or standing up, you find your back curling in any
direction more than you are used to, go see a doctor even if it isn't
hurting you (yet).

Talking about the back, I hurt my back in the gym 2 weeks back while
doing situps with 180lbs(90lbs on each shoulder). I was wearing a 
running shoe at that time(which I shouldn't) and I'm not wearing a 
belt. I was watching this crazy ad. of rebok DMX shoe and I bought 
that.You should never wear a running shoe while you are doing body 
building.On that particular day when I was doing situps my right leg 
slipped and whole weight was on my left leg and I hurt my back real 
bad. I was not even able to stand properly or walk. I went to the 
doctor at gym and she asked me to take advil and do lot of stretching 
exercises. I thought I would never recover again. Two weeks I did
lot of stretching exercises, now everything is back to normal and
tommorrow I'm participating in 5K race in Atlanta.

I had back surgery in August of '95
I had scoliosis... a bad case of it too... the surgery lasted for 9 hours and
I was out for a good 12 hours... they put a plastic flexible rod on my spine
to make it straighter... I was in ICU for 2 days, high on morphine then they
put me down in my own room the third day I was in the hospital... I got up
and walked the day after surgery (not normal for someone who's just had major
back surgery) so that's why I was in the hospital for only 10 days... do any
of you have scoliosis? How badly do you have it?

My husband (aged 50) has scoliosis -- his is becoming more aparent as he ages,
but wasn't really noticable when he was younger.  He suffers a lot of back
pain because of it.

I have an uncle with very, very bad scoliosis, too.  So bad, that although
he should be nearly 6 feet tall, the curvature makes him about 5'2".  He looks
like quasimoto to people who don't know him and it's caused him to have a very
hard time getting work all his life.  Now, though, it's so bad that he's on
oxygen all the time because it's crushing his lungs.

Oh wow that sucks :( Do you think a backbrace would work for your husband?
What are the doc's doing about your uncle?

A back brace might help my husband -- I don't know.  He's so used to the pain
that he doesn't take me seriously when I suggest asking a specialist.  *sigh*

As to my uncle, the doctors operate every few years to remove another
vertabrae so he can continue to breathe and they feed himoxygen 24 hours a
day.  At this point, that's about all they can do.  They inserted a steel rod
in his back about 30 years back, but over time, it started to bend with him.
It wasn't supposed to be able to do that.  He's a wonderful man, my uncle.
As you can imagine, he's always in a lot of pain -- but he's always cracking
jokes and is a gentle, caring person who has never given in to feeling sorry
for himself -- at least, not for any length of time.  (I've never seen any
sign -- but who knows what goes on alone at night...)

Wow... haven't been here for quite a while, but this is an item I guess I
should chime in on.  I'll be brief (yeh, right!), and come back later to see
if I can add any more to the discussion.

Your feet relate to your back in that they are your base of support.  Think
about it...if you took an extremely well-made wooden chair, made by a master
craftsman, and shaved off 1/8" from one leg, within a short time you'd likely
find all of the joints beginning to squeak and wobble.  They suffer from
abnormal stress during use.  Your feet do the same to the rest of your
skeleton.  If they don't function properly, or have some deformity (such as
a short leg, or limited range of motion), the rest of your "scaffold" has to
compensate and absorb the abnormal stress.  The result can be as minor as
sore, tired feet...or as major as severe back pain and/or degeneration of
knee, hip, even intervertebal joints.

"Arch supports" can help, but a properly made (custom) functional pair of
orthoses (commonly called 'orthotics', improper usage) can help restore the
balance and minimize/eliminate abnormal stress.  I wouldn't pay more than $20
for a pair of arch supports, but _good_ custom orthoses can range from $250
to $400 a pair!  Once your base of support is corrected, you can begin to
identify/eliminate other imbalances in your legs, hips, pelvis, spine, etc.

[re #3:]  rcurl, if vertical ground force is your particular nemisis, try a
material called Sorbothane (R).  It is the best I've found for vertical shock
absorbsion.  If shearing force is the problem ('twisting'...most common with
abnormal foot motions such as pronation, or falling arches), a material made
of Spenco (R) is my choice.

Shoes are not manufactured for human feet.  The process involves making one
model of one persons foot (the last), creating a mirror model for the other
foot, then scaling them up and down for the various sizes.  In many cases,
each _style_ of shoe has its own last (even within a given manufacturer). 
If your foot happens to match the one that the original last was made from
you're in luck, although nobody is so symmetrical as to have both feet be
exact mirror images of each other.

Interesting thoughts on the invention of heels...I might try and find out
about that.  If you are interested, you might contact the Shoe History Museum
at the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine (they have a web site, which
I _think_ is pcpm.edu, but I'm not certain.  It might be linked from the
apma.org site (Am Podiatric Med Assn).

A well fitted shoe will match the shape of your foot (ie; the last), fit
snuggly, but not tight.  It will provide a zero to five degree angle down of
the front of your foot (1/4"+ heel).  The heel counter (back of the shoe)
should be perpendicular to the ground, and rigid...gripping the heel for
stabilization.  Some cushioning around there is good too.  The shank of the
shoe should be rigid (area between the heel and ball, under the arch) and the
sole should bend at the ball, where your foot naturally bends.  The toe area
needs to be wide enough, _and deep enough_, to accomodate your toes without
pressure or friction.  My preference is for a lace-up or buckle shoe which
can secure your foot snuggly after you get it on.

Oh yeah, always shop for new shoes later in the day, after you've been on your
feet for awhile.  Everybody's feet swell a bit during a normal day and you
want them to fit properly at that size.  If one foot is a bit larger than the
other (quite common), fit the larger foot and use a filler or thick sock on
the smaller foot if needed for comfort.  New shoes should feel good "right
out of the box".  It is a fallacy that you need to break-in a new shoe.  What
usually happens is the shoe breaks-in your feet, and you develope problems
some time later (even years).

There is a national shoe exchange for people who have really different sized
feet.  If I recall, they are in Washington State, or somewhere out there in
the northwest (I haven't had to contact them in years).  They can help you
match up with someone with the opposite size feet so you can exchange with
them.  You'd buy two pair of shoes of different sizes, one to properly fit
each foot.  Then you send the others either to the exchange, or to someone
you've been hooked up with that can use the opposite sizes.

As you can see, I don't know when to stop...so I'll check back later.  Not
to invite a huge batch of junk e-mail, but I can also be reached at
mpodiatry@provide.net if you need more timely response.

        If you're interested in shoe history, check out the shoe museum in
Toronto. If anyone needs the address of the mismatched shoe supplier, I
have it around. Give me a hollar.

One new foot problem that has recently started for me:  I get ingrown 
toenails because I cut my toenails too short.  Does anyone know of a 
remedy for ingrown toenails?

 Yeah. Let the nail grow out for a couple of months. Keep your feet clean
and try not to get too crazy from the pain. I had my toes ingrown back in Jan
and I just got them back to where I want them. My nails grow slow.

And do everything you can to keep it from getting infected. When that happens,
it's not one bit of pleasant at all.

<grins>  I used to get them all the time...  To help keep them from getting
infected, or if it does to help deal with the infection, soak in a half
half solution of water and hydrogen peroxide.  To permanently remove the
problem there is a surgery they can perform, but for an occassional
problem I wouldn't recommend that.  You can also take a tiny piece
of cotton (from a cotton ball or something) and put it under the toe nail
where the skin os growing over it- that helps to keep the nail up enough
so that it doesn't get ingrown further, and if you can push the skin
back enough, and get the cotton under it- all the better. <grins> It's
not impossible, I used to have to do it.  Then in the future- don't cut 
your toenails so short. <shrugs>  There, that's my knoweldge.
(Oh, and above should be skin is not skin os)

cut your nails straight across and above where your skin covers the nail..I'm
in kind of hte same deal with toenails, but I have to cut them showrter than
thtat to do pointe..so I tend ot go arouund with sore toes either because
they're too long and creasing, or too short and ingrown..

  I had several ingrown nails as a kid, and my parents took me to a doctor
to perform surgury. He cut the left part of the nail so that it grows
straighter, but he screwed up, and I have these little spikes growing out of
the left sides of each toe. I don't have pretty feet, and if I ever see that
quack, he's gonna need a doctor.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss