Love Your Feet: A Quick, Easy Joint Pain Solution

I was talking to my dad the other day and he mentioned his knee was bothering him. He went to the doctor, the doctor did an MRI, but still couldn't figure out what was wrong. The doctor's advice was to simply do nothing and wait until the pain got worse and something operable showed up on an MRI. Until then, my dad was SOL.

Or was he? Was there a simple fix that the orthopedic surgeon had overlooked? In my opinion, yes.

Let's just say I know a thing or two about pain, namely foot pain, knee pain, hip pain, back pain, etc. I've had foot surgeries, knee surgeries and have been diagnosed with arthritis, tendonitis, severe degenerative disc disease, annulus disc tears, a herniated disc, etc., etc., etc.

I have learned that when something starts to hurt, such as my feet, knees, hips, back or all of the above; or if I find that I'm suddenly coming up with excuses for reasons why I don't want to walk or jog or if I'm cutting my walks and jogs short, it is time time to take a look at my sneakers.

With that, I asked my dad a simple question, "When is the last time you bought a new pair of sneakers?" (I already knew the answer. My dad came from a family that championed duct tape and glue to hold shoes together until they literally disintegrated off of his feet.) He told me he couldn't remember. I told him the first thing he should do is go out and buy a new pair and see if that made a difference.

Since this is my dad we're talking about, before he rushed to the store to buy new shoes, he found another pair of sneakers lying around the house and decided to try them out for a few days. Guess what, his knee pain went away. Bingo, problem solved.

I think it's so funny how we often overlook the simplest solutions to our problems. We forget the children's song we learned when we were five:

The toe bone's connected to the foot bone,
the foot bone's connected to the ankle bone
the ankle's bone connected to the leg bone...

So if you are having issues with foot, knee, hip, back pain, etc. and the doctor can't figure out what's going on, try a new pair of shoes. If that doesn't work, ask your doctor if he/she believes prescription orthotics would help. I know they have made a world of difference for me and so many of the active people I know.

Tomorrow: How to buy the correct pair of shoes for your feet.