Don't ignore your feet

From the The Oxford Times, first published Thursday 18th Jan 2007.

If you think that bunions and corns are both vegetables, Colin Martin won't be coming round to dinner. The Bicester-based pedorthist would, however, probably be delighted to be asked. Our ignorance and abuse of all things beneath our knees concerns him, fascinates him, and keeps him in work. But just why should we care about our feet?

"The human foot is one of the most complex areas of the body and they can cause a great deal more trouble than you realise," said Colin.

And he should know. As one of only six certified pedorthists in the UK he has a vast understanding of the biomechanics of the foot and ankle and knows to what level modifications can be carried out to best achieve the goals set out by the doctor for his patient.

According to Mr Martin, a pedorthist is to a chiropodist like a pharmacist is to a doctor. He specialises in helping athletes with their footwear choice using techniques such as video analysis on a tread mill.

By doing this he can examine what happens with a person's gait, as well as look at their hips and knees. As a result, he can work out what level of support they need before they find out the hard way for example when they are running.

And it is not just atheltes that need this sort of treatment. An average person walks 100,000 miles in their lifetime - couple that with the fact that an estimated 50 per cent of the population has a difference in leg length and it is easy to see that if the foundations of our body are not functioning correctly, it has knock-on effect throughout our entire system.

Mr Martin said: "More than 80 per cent of us will have foot pain of some kind at some point in our lives. A biomechanical assessment will aim to find the exact cause of any injuries or pain, rather than continually treating the symptoms."

Our feet were originally designed to walk on earth, not concrete, hence the great natural flexibility of the foot, which has 28 bones, 19 muscles and 107 ligaments, and thousands of nerve endings.

Walking on hard, inflexible surfaces flattens the foot and in 90 per cent of the population causes over pronation', which is an excessive rolling inwards of the feet.

Excessive pronation can cause strain on the arch, heel, ankle, knee and back, often resulting in great pain but it can be corrected by wearing special insoles.

The cost of not getting the right shoe is likely to far outweigh the cost of making sure you do, as Manchester United star Norman Whiteside discovered in 1991 when a persistent knee injury caused by his boots not adequately correcting his over-pronation, prematurely curtailed his football career.

"Some people have bad luck, obviously, but for most of us, our foot problems are preventable. People should be aware of, rather than worried about, their feet. I want to bring pedorthics into the high street - there is no reason why it should hide away in tiny clinics."

With 17 years experience in footwear fitting, Colin is now developing a successful high street business, Solutions4Feet in Bicester, that includes an orthotic foot supports service.

He graduated from straightforward footwear retail to becoming a pedorthist by taking an intensive course in the United States where pedorthists are as common as chiropodists.

Since Mr Martin opened his shop last year, business has gradually started to snowball, especially after he managed to convince two local GPs surgeries and four physiotherapists to recommend his services to patients.

He also sells footwear, especially training shoes, although they are not high street brands and he insists they are higher quality than those found in the local sports shop, although they are not more expensive.

"People only have one set of feet, and they are becoming more and more aware that they must look after them," said Mr Martin, a former ski instructor, whose clients include the Scottish Alpine team.

"These guys are professional skiers, they are in their boots eight to ten hours a day, so they have got to be comfortable and have the performance they want as well, which is just as important for the recreational skier.

"When you pay a lot of money for a skiing holiday, you don't want it destroyed by pain."

n Contact: Colin Martin, Solutions4Feet, 01869 244424

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