Your Oh So Aching Feet

Every single one of my clients that sees me on a regular basis all have one very specific thing in common; bad circulation in their feet.

It is as guaranteed as death and taxes. The biggest question I'm asked is "why?". Why is it that EVERYONE has bad circulation in their feet? To answer that question all you have to do is look down. You, almost every second of every day, walk on an unnatural surface. Whether it is carpet, hardwood, cement, or concrete, the surface that you are walking on is flat and hard. There isn't a plane on this earth with the exception of ice that is 100% flat. Our feet weren't meant to walk on such bland surfaces. They were meant to contour with the natural, ever changing surfaces of the earth. But, that isn't our only problem.

The bottom of your feet, especially the arch, is meant to be a secondary pump for the blood in your legs. To combat gravity, your legs need this extra pump. BUT, what does a pump need in order to be efficient? It needs the opportunity to actually pump.

Imagine, for a second, running outside barefoot on the natural ground. Your foot would flex and extend to its fullest every time you took a step. It would change angles and weight would be distributed differently with each step, thus adapting to the constant changing of the environment. There wouldn't be anything prohibiting it to do so. As this happens, the blood circulates properly through the body, and most importantly, blood doesn't become stagnant at the bottom of your feet. Not only would the blood not become stagnant, but the true villain, lactic acid, couldn't settle and build up a literal damn in your feet. This lactic acid and stagnant blood is the bad circulation that I'm talking about.

The other factor in this conversation that is as important as the unnatural ground we walk on is our shoes. And not just high heels and flip flops, but all of our shoes. Throw the idea of shoes that support, or orthodics, or Dr. Scholls blah blah blah... they all do the same wrong doing, and that is keeping the foot from moving like it was originally designed to. These shoes put the feet in an even more unnatural scenario then the flat ground does. I had a doctor once tell me that I needed "support shoes" for my circulation problems in my left leg, the same leg that I had my blood clot in. Funny thing... when Shiatsu was used to break up the stagnant blood in my feet it made my leg feels 1,000X better. The doctor wanted me to do the exact opposite of what worked. Truthfully, while he might have had the intention to really help, he was only guessing by using theories that have been developed by other doctors over the last however many years. In reality, he was shooting blanks in a dark room, while intoxicated, and giving a piggy back ride to a monkey. All he was going to accomplish was getting me to buy some ridiculously priced shoes. He, as in most doctors, have no real understanding how the blood moves, or doesn't move, through the feet and how it effects the body.

I have clients that come in and swear their orthodics have helped their back pain. But they come in to see me because their leg pain is really bad. I try to tell them that the orthodics have done nothing to "fix" their problem, and in fact it is one of the main contributors to their present leg problems. Their body has put their problems into a priority category. Legs first... then back. You can't feel all of your pain at once, you'd explode, so your body focuses on the most important or most recent first. They feel their legs but they don't realize their back is tight. Many times when I release the fluid tension in the legs (through just the feet), they start to notice the tension in their back almost immediately.

The last culprit in bad circulation for the feet is our very popular friend; our cultural diet. Again, we have a highly acidic and unnatural diet, thus changing our pH in our blood to create a very unhealthy clogged up circulatory system. Acid doesn't dissolve acid. So if your blood's pH is acidic, how is your body going to eliminate lactic acid that is in your blood stream? Not very efficiently. So then that same lactic acid finds its way through your body and settles down in places like your feet.

Why does everyone have bad circulation in their feet? Unnatural ground we live on, the idea that we need shoes for better health, the same shoes that limit our body's natural movement, and our unnatural cultural diet that leaves our blood pH extremely acidic.

What can you do to fix it? Change your diet using Trophology to stay properly alkalized. You can roll a golf ball on the bottom of your feet rather deeply to stimulate better blood circulation. Try drinking 4 oz. of water w/ 1/2 tsp. of baking soda once a day, usually at night before bed, to bring your blood's pH closer to its normal level (7.4). You can spend more time barefoot and walking on natural ground. Or just come and see me and I'll clean you right up.

There is another option and it is starting to get more and more popular, and the funny thing is that the developers don't even fully understand what they've stumbled onto. Go to this website and look at one of the companies that has created this new shoe. The sad thing was that this was an idea of mine, and I missed the bus by a few years. That's life I guess.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/indexNA.cfm

There are multiple types of these shoes, but technically they are the same. They protect your feet from the harsh elements but do their best to allow your foot to move naturally.

Well, there it is. Your feet are the most important part of your body to take care of. The Seattle Mariners Baseball player, Ichiro Suzuki, has gone on the record stating, "Healthy feet, healthy body.". This being the answer to the question, "Why do you use a wooden stick to beat up your foot before the game?". Ichiro stimulates the blood in his feet to keep his entire body's circulation healthy. There's a reason he can play at such a high level at the age he is and it isn't genetics.

Be nice to your feet, and they'll be nice to you. Stay Healthy, Happy, and Ready for Anything.