Take care of your feet!

I’d like to share personal experience regarding foot health with all of you fellow bone warriors. Hopefully, it might help someone else.
A bit of background: been running for the last 30+ years, but have decreased the mileage as I have gotten older. I’ve had several doctors encourage me to continue running, even though it won’t make a ton of difference with my lumbar density, it appears to have maintained my hips. I do it for mental health! For about a year, have been dealing with chronic, unpredictably sporadic left foot pain. I tried very hard to figure out the cause and treatment. AI and YouTube offered an overwhelming number of exercises, orthotics, massagers,and fixes. I tried them all. Through all of that, I avoided going to the doctor because, honestly, I didn’t want to find out it was a stress fracture and hear that I should stop running. Dumb, I know! When it worsened enough to sideline me from most everything, including my weight training, I sought out a physical therapist who focused on strengthening my neglected feet, toes, ankles and lower leg muscles. After about 6 weeks of therapy, feeling stronger but still dealing with frustrating pain events, I gave in and got xrays and consulted with a orthopedic foot surgeon. Good news: NO fractures but no obvious explanation for the episodes. Meanwhile, the pain is gradually subsiding. I continue with PT. The doctor reassured me that it is safe to challenge the foot when it’s not hurting and build back my running routine. I am back up to my previous 3 mile walk/runs and have had no pain in over a week.
Here’s what I want to put out there: In our efforts to avoid fracture, we do weight training, sometimes heavy, we walk or run or jump or whatever we need to do to stay a step ahead of the beast. We take medication, or not, supplements, adjust our diet……all appropriate responses. We focus on our spines and hips….because that’s what gets measured. We forget about our FEET. At least, I did. I was smug about running. Wasn’t that enough? If you can find a PT to address foot and ankle strength, or even look up exercises on your own, you will be rewarded with a better sense of balance, ability to quickly change position when you encounter an object in your way, and just have a better perception of where you are in space. I cannot stress enough how much I have benefited from having a year of pain that led me to figuring out the importance of foot health. Almost everyone can work on strengthening feet and ankles. Next up: I’m going to make sure my hands, fingers and wrists are just as strong!