You are more than likely reading this because you have a bunion (or two), and they are causing you pain. Unfortunately, this is a common problem that most are told only surgery can fix. Although surgery can straighten out your toes, your bunion WILL come back. How are we so sure? Well, it’s because surgery doesn’t fix the root cause of a bunion, it only addresses the symptoms of the main culprit. So, without eliminating the root cause, your bunion and pain will return.
Now you might have been told that bunions are hereditary, but that is just not the case. Studies have proven this claim (more on this later). Let’s start from the beginning. Nearly all babies are born with perfect feet, not with bunions (deformities do happen, but are rare). This means something must happen between birth and the bunion. We would venture to say that nearly every person in the world would agree that bunions don’t magically appear one day and that we don’t go deforming our toes on our own, or do we?
Back to the hereditary argument. It has been proven that some people, because of their genetic makeup, have a muscular structure that is more likely to be altered; others are born with foot muscles that better withstand the effects of the outside world. No matter who you are, your feet are affected by outside influences. If you don’t protect your feet from those influences, you will end up with some sort of bunion – it is just a matter of how quickly.
Bunion pain is serious, and as you know can be very limiting; even daily walking can be a struggle. To combat the pain, you do research for the “best” footwear around. Herein lies the root cause of your bunion problem…your shoes. There’s so much we can talk about when it comes to footwear, and will in later posts, but it’s the years of wearing a shoe with a pointed shape that’s causing the bunion and the pain associated with it. We know this may seem impossible, but take a close look at your foot, then your shoe and then your foot and shoe. You will see that your foot is slowly being molded into a shape that accommodates your shoe.
Where to go from here? First, know that you can get better, but keep in mind that your bunion is the result of years in bad footwear. This means it’s also going to take some time to slowly retrain your toe muscles back to their natural position. This has been proven to work many times over. It’s going to require time, so stay patient. With the right balance of proper footwear (i.e. shoes that are flat, flexible, and widest at the tips of the toes), bunion stretches, soft tissue exercises, and the use of Correct Toes (especially while being active), you will be able to cure painful bunions. In addition, these measures can help prevent you from having other foot and ankle problems in the future.
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