In order for your adjustment to hold properly, your patients need to maintain proper postural support throughout the day.
Patients who quickly or easily slip back into postural misalignment after an adjustment are usually victims of improper support in their shoes. You must ensure your patients’ pedal foundation is corrected and supported all the time, to properly support their pelvis and spine.
Soft tissue is the culprit
Davis’s Law says soft tissue models according to imposed demand. If pronation or supination exceeds norms of degree or duration, stability of the entire musculoskeletal complex is at risk. Loose, extra motion in the foot sets up the entire musculoskeletal system for major instability.
The instability factor
The pedal foundation is often the victim of unstable collapse. Pedal instability starts in the feet but causes unequal postural distortions throughout the structures above: knees, hips, pelvis, spine, and even neck (see Fig. 1).
Postural distortion is relatively easy to identify. Signs include:
- Unlevel shoulders
- A functional short leg
- Internal knee rotation
- Tilting in the pelvic structure
- Anterior cervical translation
Major problem for the adjustment
Without proper support under the foot’s soft tissue, it’s highly likely the arches will collapse. And as demonstrated above, chiropractic adjustments won’t ‘hold’ properly.
Relieve and normalize
Orthotics help relieve musculoskeletal abnormalities and reduce symptoms by enhancing the feet’s ability to support, move, and protect the body.
The intent is to control the angle and timing of pronation, not to restrict or eliminate normal foot motion. By normalizing movement in the feet, custom orthotics encourage normal reactions along the kinetic chain.
In fact, one study shows that 4 months of orthotic usage resulted in improvement in 3 key measurables:
- Femoral head height (5mm average improvement) (Fig. 2)
- Sacrovertebral angle (2-3-degree improvement)
- Lumbosacral Disc Angle (2-3-degree improvement)
The results of a recent survey indicate the average woman in North America owns 19 pairs of shoes. Men own on average 12 pairs.
If the foot’s soft tissue is not supported in each of these shoes, the stability of the entire musculoskeletal complex is put at risk.
That’s why it’s essential to consider multiple pairs of stabilizing orthotics for each patient.
