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numbness

Michael Shephard
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11 years 2 months ago
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12/30/2011 - 6:36pm
numbness

My left foot has numbness running from the bottom/back of my heel, along the outside edge of the foot, to my toes, sometimes to my big toe. It started about 3 months ago as a burning sensation on the whole bottom of my foot that my physician thought was a complication of shingles. The shingles rash has been gone for 2 months but the numbness is still here. I can feel touch to the foot but my heel and the outside edge feel as if there is no padding. My physician now thinks my problem originates in my back (spinal stenosis). I've been using the Gokhale method on and off for about a year and it did wonders for my posture (I have military neck). Is there any thing in the Gokhale that will take away the numbness?

LaurenFromTX
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02/28/2011 - 8:52pm

Check out, "Trigger Point Therapy Workbook," by Clair Davies, the chapter on calf trigger points.  The book is available in many public libraries.  Trigger points (muscle knots in predictable places) in the calves can cause pain and numbness in the feet.  Also read in the book about trigger points in the foot.  Rolling the foot on a spiky massage ball (e.g., Rubz ball) and self-massage of the calves may help.  The gastroc and soleus muscles in the calf connect to the achillies tendon at the back of the heel, where you are reporting pain.

Usable Thought
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10 years 9 months ago
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02/15/2013 - 12:09pm

I am new to the Gokhale Method - I bought the "8 steps" book a couple of weeks ago and am slowly trying to work my way through the lessons. However I have had foot numbness since 2007 that my neurologists say is caused by spinal stenosis and ridiculopathy (irritation and compression of the nerve roots due to stenosis). And in addition I have owned the Claire Davies book on trigger points for years now - I have fibromyalgia and I use some of the techniques described by Davies for trigger points that are especially bothersome for me.

In my opinion, although Davies is very well-meaning and there is probably some validity to the techniques he describes, he attributes far too many symptoms to trigger points. I have done the calf exercises you mention from the book, along with others, to see if they help with my numbness, and they don't. I just don't think there is much likelihood that a person with substantial numbness such as mine is experincing this because of trigger points. Especially, in my case, when the numbness is in both feet and not just one foot.

My stenosis & foot problem is actually why i'm investigating the Gokhale method - I'd like to keep the problem from getting worse, or at least slow down the progression. And my posture has been poor for years - I have a rounded thoracic spine plus a sway, plus my pelvis seems pretty tight to me, i.e. if I attempt to antivert I tend to introduce a sway instead. My neurologist had recommended conventional physical therapy for me, but I've seen the physical therapy industry at work in other contexts (most recently, getting treated for bursitis of both sit bones), and am skeptical. I'm sure there are many wonderful physical therapists, but the ones I have worked with over the years have been hourly wage-earners working for big PT "shops" and instilled with dated and dogmatic practices and beliefs. For example the PT I saw for my bursitis insisted that the pelvis should be "neutral" - level back to front - rather than antiverted. This was even before I had heard of the Gokhale method, but I just didn't trust his assertion - it seemed very much like something he had learned by rote and was passing on by rote.

I am hoping the Gokhale method will be more flexible & practical & experience-based - even if it can't cure my stenosis, maybe it will lead to a healthier posture that will pay subtle benefits over time.

My 2 cents, for what it's worth.

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