Orthotics are prescription medical devices that you wear inside your shoes to correct foot alignment issues that cause biomechanical imbalances while walking, running, or standing. Orthotics can relieve foot and heel pain by compensating for a toe joint deformity or even lifting your arch. Custom orthotics are specifically designed for you to help your issues by using technology that screens your feet for structural integrities like low or high arches.
Case Study
There was a study performed to collect data to address methodological considerations that may impact subject-specific reactions to foot orthotics during running. Six endurance-trained recreational runners from a chiropractic college campus wore their own running shoes and inserted either their custom orthotics during 1 testing session or their shoe-fitted insoles during the other testing session. Comfort perception was measured for each footwear condition. Measurements of oxygen consumption at several moderate exercise intensities, to mimic recreational running, generated an individual’s economy-of-running line. Predicted running velocity was calculated as an index of endurance performance.
Lower extremity muscle activity was recorded. Descriptive statistics, a repeated-measures analysis of variance model, and a paired test were used to document any systematic changes in running economy, lower extremity muscle activities within and across subjects as a function of footwear conditions. The results were that they found decreases at several moderate exercise intensities and increases occurred in all 6 subjects while wearing their orthotic intervention vs their shoe-fitted insoles. There were no consistent changes in lower extremity muscle activity.
What We Do
We start with a gait scan analysis to see if orthotics are needed. We then use this scan to create a treatment plan personalized to you and your pain. We focus heavily on custom orthotics to relieve pain so that with enough correction the foot’s structure can be aligned to make walking, running, and exercising more biomechanically efficient.
Learn more by visiting our services page: https://www.etobicokehealthclinic.com/services/
References
Burke, J. R., & Papuga, M. O. (2012, May 22). Effects of foot orthotics on running economy: Methodological considerations. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161475412000553
