Do you suffer from foot pain that spans your heel to the front of your foot? Midfoot arthritis may be the culprit behind your pain.
If you are an active person, midfoot pain and swelling can be particularly debilitating. As the foundation of your body, your feet need support for every movement. Specifically shaped, each bone in your foot gives you the right amount of weight-bearing required to keep you balanced as you walk and move. But what happens when you start to experience pain in those bones?
What is Midfoot Arthritis?
The midfoot refers to several small bones and their connections to one another. The midfoot joins or connects your heel to the front or ball of your foot. Together, all the bones in the foot work to support and aid your arches to absorb your everyday movements’ shock.
Naturally, your joints receive and transmit pressure as you go about your day. Even everyday activities, such as walking, stair climbing, or rising from a chair, can significantly influence your feet since they propel you upward.
Arthritis is a natural response to abnormal shear and strain between bones when they have lost their quality connections or relationship to each other. The midfoot bones connect like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. Altered alignment due to poor movement habits, injuries, or disuse causes the cartilage between these bones to wear down, and this will eventually cause pain. Pain is the nervous system alerting you that protection is necessary in the area, and some change either in the ankle, knee, hip, or spine, is desperately needed. Without cartilage buffering and facilitating your movement patterns, the midfoot is no longer efficient at absorbing the pressure and force from everyday movements.
What Signs and Symptoms Should You Look For?
You may present with midfoot arthritis after you suffered a significant injury to the area. One typical example is a Lisfranc injury, which occurs when the bones and ligaments in the midfoot are broken or torn.
However, in most cases, you will experience this condition due to wear and tear over time.
- If you have midfoot arthritis, you will likely present with the following symptoms:
- Pain in the midfoot area, especially after prolonged sitting, standing, or walking.
- Pain in the midfoot that worsens after wearing shoes.
- Stiffness or swelling in the area.
- Limping due to pain.
- Bony lumps (known as bone spurs or osteophytes) in the midfoot.
How Can You Treat Your Condition?
While injections and medications are a common approach to pain relief and treatment, there are other methods you may not be familiar with, such as the Feldenkrais Method.
The Feldenkrais Method is a unique approach to treating midfoot arthritis since the exercises involved do not require you to strain or exert yourself with much effort. There are no stretching or vigorous movements involved. Instead, you engage in slow, intentional movements that gradually allow your brain to improve how it coordinates posture and movement at the ankle, knee, hip, and pelvis.
This method takes advantage of your brain’s neuroplasticity, the ability to change how joints move in relationship to one another, often eliminating the painful response to movement. As a result, you experience less friction, pain, and inflammation in your joints, resulting in more comfortable and efficient movement.
Are You Ready to Engage in a Pain-free Lifestyle?
If you suffer from midfoot arthritis, your objective may be to prevent the condition from progressing and get back to your active lifestyle.
As a certified Feldenkrais practitioner, I am happy to work with you on your movement goals and answer your questions about this movement education modality. To get in touch for a virtual or in-person appointment, you can reach me at 812-344-4119.