While I was visiting my family last weekend, I came across something I thought was impossible – a cure for bunions. I have been looking at people’s feet for 35 years and when I would see the deformation of the joints that occurs with a bunion, I would have to throw up my hands in surrender. I just did not have an answer. Well now I do have an answer.
What are bunions? The most typical bunion is when the base of the big toe sticks way out and the toe itself ends up pointing sideways towards the other toes. It’s not a pretty picture, and they cause a lot of foot pain and disability. In severe cases all the toes seem to bunch up in the middle of the foot, often crossing over top of each other. In time the damage to the natural movements of the foot work their way up the line to produce knee troubles, hip troubles, and low back troubles.
What causes bunions? Simply put, pointed toe shoes cause bunions. Some people want to think that genetics are involved, but they aren’t. Possibly genetics could be associated with weaker ligaments throughout the body that would make a person develop bunions in response to the pressure created by the tight shoes more easily, but there are no genes that cause bunions to happen without the insult of the pointed shoes.
Feet are designed to be the widest at the toes and progressively narrower as you move towards the back of the foot. Most modern shoes are designed to make the balls of the feet the widest point of the foot and to then squeeze the toes together towards a point in the middle. Why do we do this? Natural feet are not this shape.
There are various theories as to why the shoe styles favored today tend to be both pointed and typically have elevated heels. Most of the theories have to do with the development of style as there does not appear to be any functional reason for doing this. Among the more interesting, and likely correct to my mind, is that heels and pointed toes are a form of foot binding that proclaims to the world that you are special and do not need to work and be on your feet all day. Heels and pointed toes are only comfortable if you do not need to walk and stand very much, so wearing them would be a statement that you are of the upper class that does not need to work for a living. Women are especially prone to wearing high heels and tightly pointed shoes with the general understanding that they are a statement that you are delicate and sexy and therefore not expected to engage in physical labor. High heels are the opposite statement to a pair of work boots.
Whatever the reason for such shoes, they are killing our feet. Constantly sticking our feet into a restrictive leather binding that pulls our toes together, stretches the outer toe ligaments and constricts the inner toe ligaments is insane. Over time the outer ligaments get longer and the inner ligaments get shorter. When this happens they now hold our toes pointed towards the middle all on their own.
Toes are meant to grip the ground and help pull us forward just like our hands would do if we were trying to climb up a steep cliff. If you were trying to do rock climbing, would you bind your fingers together into a bunch? Of course not! You would want your fingers to be able to stretch as wide as possible to grip the surface of the rock wall. Toes are the same way. They are meant to splay out at the ends. But we are so socially conditioned that a shoe that actually is shaped to facilitate the natural function of the foot like the Vibram looks ridiculous.
So over time the toe joints become deformed and arthritic as a result. The pain can be excruciating. As I said before, I did not know what to do for them except to suggest the person stop making the problem worse by discontinuing the use of pointed shoes. In bad situations surgery seemed to be the only lasting alternative. But the few patients I have had that did go the surgical route had nothing but bad things to say. Recovery from the surgery can take up to a year and is a very painful process. Most wish they had never done the surgery.
With this in mind you can imagine my interest when I saw these weird toe appliances my sister-in-law was wearing. When she told me that the Podiatrist that designed them was able to actually cure bunions with them, I was all ears. They had met the Podiatrist/designer at a presentation he made at Western States Chiropractic College in Portland where my brother works. They were impressed and decided to try them for themselves.
This is not some miracle over night process. If you have bunions, you have been creating them since you were two years old. Only the shoes for one-year-olds are actually shaped like real feet. Ligaments and bones do not remodel overnight. It takes some work and a willingness to abandon the foot deforming shoes you have worn your whole life.
These appliances are a soft silicone mold that slip over your toes and gently spread them apart and back into the natural toe/foot shape. There are exercises and a gradual re-adaptation process that takes about a year to remodel your foot back to its natural shape. Think of them as acting like teeth braces, only for your toes. Compared to foot surgery, this is a no-brainer. The appliances only cost about $65 and in reviewing their website, I see that there are a number of modifications you can make to adapt them to your feet specifically.
I contacted the makers of the product and they offered to send me some free shipping coupons to hand out to patients that were interested in curing their bunions. I should have these coupons soon, so if you are interested just stop on by the office.
With the amount of time I spend on my feet, if my feet hurt, everything hurts. If the feet are not stable and working right, it impacts your posture and spine with chronic tension and pain. There are as many bones in your feet as there are in your entire spine. That is why I frequently have to adjust the feet. Now I have something I can recommend for that stubborn problem I have not been able to fix, bunions.