[Vickie]

Orthotics are designed to compensate for design flaws in your body whether they are original to the structure or accomplished in your life process. I agree with Wolfman that they need to be properly fitted but don't think you should pay enormous amounts of money unless you have a problem that you have not been able to correct or you have a chunk of cash to blow. I would also suggest you see a well trained chiropractor or osteopath or orthopedic 'guy' and not a podiatrist unless you think your feet are the problem. The chiropractor and osteopath will take into account more closely your 'whole body' problem.

Now here's my shtick:

I have taken many people out of their orthotics thru the process of correcting their alignment. If you can't, aren't willing, or are unable to tackle the origin of your problem (I think you have proven you are willing and able) or if you have a permanent condition (i.e. surgical procedures, fusion, birth defect, etc.) then orthotics can be a bandaid to the problem. (For the record sometimes a bandaid will get you through the difficult period until you correct the problem.) They need to be replaced/refitted every once in a while because the original degeneration that caused the need for the support will continue to decline, thereby needing yet more support. One of the worst mistakes you can make with orthotics is to put them in your shoes and then forget about them for years on end. Another problem is that once you have worn the orthotic in a shoe, you have to always wear the orthotic in that shoe. The orthotic make an impression into the foundation of the shoe that doesn't spring up once the apparatus is removed.

As I help people who are already in orthotic correct their alignment (and therefore the origin of their pain) we buy a second pair of all of their shoes and begin to wear the non-supported shoe for limited amounts of time each day. This is the same process that is required to introduce orthotics but coming out of them (once the structure is improved) is quicker and such a relief. Much like getting braces off your teeth.

So everybody has a story and here's mine. At age 20 (many, many moons ago) I started running and had crippling pain in what you would call my groin. (Ok, you might not, but you know what I mean) At this point I was wearing one of the first three running shoes on the mainstream market and my running expert, the guy at the shoe store, suggested I go to his sport podiatrist. I went and he put me in orthotics and $340 later, voila! NO Pain, it was great! About a month later I was rear-ended and incurred a real neck injury landing me in orthopedics and physical therapy which helped nada so I went to a chiropractor (first visit in my life). My neck got better almost immediately and I started running again in about three weeks. But . . . lo' and behold, my other 'groin' started to hurt. The podiatrist couldn't help me even though he adjusted them. And then the chiropractor suggested that we had corrected my problem, the cause of the original pain and now the orthotics provided the exact problem on the other side; just from my feet this time and not my mal-adjusted spine. Bought new shoes, hit the running track and no pain, no pain anywhere.

This was during the period that I was doing a great deal of discovery about physiology and the experience only bolstered my growing belief that "given the right stimuli the body can heal as it is a self regenerating organism".

For what it's worth. Vickie