Get Rid Of Bunions & Foot Pain Without Surgery
No one pays any attention to their feet. We cover them up in high heels, snappy socks, brogues, Oxfords, all kinds of boots, loafers, moccasins, and even sandals. However, foot pain makes us painfully aware of our feet and just how important they are. Foot pain is special – it’s about all you can concentrate on because it hurts with every step. That pain often forces us to sit down and consider our options for getting around…and there aren’t many.
So, let’s talk today about a specific foot symptom–bunions. The medical term is hallux valgus. A bunion is a calcification of the first joint of the big toe. If you have bunions, you know how painful they are. Years ago, you had no idea that the callus or bump showing up at the base of your big toe would become what it is today. It started as a blister, then a rough spot of skin or a callus, and now it’s a large ugly lump that hurts.
How Do Bunions Form?
Over time, as that bump grew, you noticed your big toe started shifting in toward your other toes. Your shoes started fitting differently, or not fitting at all, and the pain started creeping in. That’s when you realized that your little “bump” or “corn” from years ago was now a full-blown bunion.
Many of you have gone through surgery. Some of you have said that the surgery helped, and all of you know how painful the recovery was. In addition, many of you have seen the bunions return. If you fall into that last group, or if you’re contemplating surgery, and are curious about why the bunions returned, read on.
The bunions returned because the focus of the surgery was on the effect, not the cause. That’s the short answer. The surgeon and you focused on the site of the symptom, rather than the source of the symptom.
In the BodyFix Method™ world of alignment and whole-body mechanics, bunions tell us exactly what is happening at the hip. Better said, they tell us exactly what isn’t happening at the hip. Simply put, if you have bunions, you have a hip dysfunction that’s driving it. A dysfunctional hip is a major cause, not your feet. Your feet are the victims.
There are simple mechanical reasons how and why bunions form. Here’s a straightforward explanation, free of jargon.
When you take a step, you are designed to:
Flex at the hip and pick your foot off the ground,
Have enough room for your foot to clear the ground, swing forward, and
Come back down, striking the heel, then the ball of the foot, and then pushing off all five toes.
Then start the process over again with the next step.
However, for those of you with bunions, the hip isn’t flexing properly, which means there’s not enough room for the foot to clear the ground, and the body has to adapt and compensate. As a result, the leg roundhouses out and around, rather than swinging straightforward, and the foot points out to the side. You land on the outside of the heel, continue to the outside of the foot, and then finally roll the weight across the foot to the big toe. Your big toe becomes the final point of contact with the ground as you propel yourself forward. All that repetitive stress and friction on the big toe is what causes your bunion!
Your body knows this foot strike isn’t correct and begins to protect itself by building up a bony “blister”. Continue that dysfunctional gait pattern over the next several years, and you have a bunion! You might think it appeared overnight, but it gave you years of warning. It’s not hereditary or genetic; it’s your hips not working properly.
The body gives us various cautionary signs that it’s out of alignment and out of balance. Perhaps you get daily migraines, or you are tense with back pain. Or, just maybe, your bunions are your body’s warning signal.
To get to the cause of any of these symptoms, take a step back and look at the body as a quantum whole, not as separate and disparate pieces. Keep in mind that the foot is connected to the leg bone. So, it does mean that your bunions are connected to your migraine headaches and everything in between! All of your symptoms have the same cause, and it’s your misaligned body. Bring your alignment back to natural, fix your posture, and your symptoms, your bunions, will be gone.
How do you fix a dysfunctional hip and lose the bunions? Talk to us, come in to see us, or go to our shop and download our Fix Bunions-Short Program. It will cost you $19.99 but it’s worth its weight in gold. Once you purchase that program, I’ll send you a backup program for free. It will complement the first program and give you a daily routine that will get your hips working and rid you of pain. Do the program every day for the next 4-5 months and after that, once or twice a week forever. Follow the program, do the exercises each day, and your bunions and the pain will just be a bad memory. The program is also great for hammertoes!
Be well. Life is too short to be in pain.
Exercise Physiologist