Chiropractic Manipulation of the Foot and Ankle

By -- L. J. Faye, D.C.

See pages xxx on how to order.

When I was working in the Sacramento area, I had the opportunity to visit with a group of doctors who had formed a Motion Palpation study group. They would meet once a month at a different doctor's office, show one of the Faye videotapes, and then practice what they had seen.

On this particular night, the study program was on the palpation and adjustment of the foot and ankle. What impressed me the most was the no-nonsense approach. While there were refreshments and fellowship -- the most important thing was that everyone understood and participated.

Each doctor took turns working on another. To make things more understandable they had a skeletal model of the foot which was placed next to the foot being adjusted. In this way they could better visualize the structures they were palpating. Along with all of this, the tape would be stopped and rerun at intervals until each procedure was throughly understood.

They were doing exactly as Faye suggests in the tape. Don't just watch -- practice what you see. It was a perfect example of what should be done to get the most out of this extraordinary series of tapes.

It seems unfortunate that too many chiropractors neglect this most important area of the body. We, as specialists in body mechanics, should be aware that the base upon which the rest of the frame balances can determine the relationships of all the articulating surfaces above it. Gillet considered the feet the functional base of the spine.

Out of the 206 bones in the body, 52 are in the feet, with an estimated 66 articulating surfaces. It's little wonder that not only are the feet important but complex with the requisite ability to induce ambulation and compensation for the structures they support.

Long ago I had a patient come to my office with a severe headache of two weeks duration. During the examination, I discovered that she had quite a nasty, apparently new, scar on one of her feet. She told me she had stepped on some glass at the beach approximately two weeks earlier. It was easy to surmise that by shifting her weight to protect the injured foot, she was predisposed to compensatory fixations. After the first specific adjustments the headache was relieved.

As a result of the preceding, there is hardly a time that I don't include specific corrections of the feet as an adjunct of my spinal adjustments.

This tape by Faye is like all the others, with clear and concise demonstrations of anatomy and mechanics and excellent camera work that details every nuance of palpation and mobilization. Just when you think you've had everything explained, he does a recap with the admonition to practice what you've learned.