“10,000 steps per day” for weight loss may not seem like that big a challenge, unless you have toe or heel pain. The foot and ankle is a complex engineering marvel. The structures of the foot must support your entire weight through every step, accelerate your weight through jumping and decelerate your weight when you land. Over many years through your life, it is impressive that your feet do not wear out.
Well, actually, they DO wear out. The ligaments, tendons and joints are stressed, stretched, and bruised every day. There is always some degree of tissue breakdown every day, and then your tissues attempt to self-repair every night when you unload them. Thankfully, the feet, ankles and the rest of your body was designed to be able to heal for many years, even with substantial trauma and general wear and tear.
Gradually, the ligaments that create the arch of the foot stretch, along with the joint capsules and tendons. The typical result includes such changes as a flattened arch, a painful heel and deformed toes. People are often given a diagnosis, such as “plantar fasciitis”, “turf toe”, “metatarsalgia”, “bunion”, “Morton’s Neuroma”, “ankle sprain”, and “tendinitis”, but these are all characterized basically as the same process involving different structures: the wearing out and stretching out of the supportive collagen fibers, the “fabric” that holds “the bag of bones” together.
Fortunately, this does not need to be a losing battle. Each of these processes can be treated without surgery using Regenerative Medicine / Prolotherapy. Injections of growth factors including Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) and Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC) will stimulate repair of the damaged ligaments, joints, and tendons. The platelets in your bloodstream contain a vast assortment of growth factors which normally serve to repair your aches and pains, and these can be directly injected into the painful areas of your body to stimulate growth and repair for areas that have not fully healed through the normal processes of repair.
Physical Therapy in conjunction with growth factor injections can strengthen the system to support your body weight better and provide stability to a weakened ligamentous system. External support under the arch using the A-Line Prescriptive Insole provides support through the weakened arch and helps to guide the forces that re-align your ligaments and joint structures while they heal after growth factor injection therapy. With a combination of growth factor treatment, proper arch support and footwear, and a well-designed exercise program, you can return to golf, tennis, weight-lifting, yoga, pilates, or your other normal life activities without the foot and ankle pain that has been limiting you.
