Do Your Feet Hurt? Do You Have High Arches? If So Read This

For the past 25 years I’ve had pain in the balls of my feet along with numbness between my big toe and second toe. Over the years I saw several doctors and received several different explanations — neuropathy, a back issue, high arches, and even the catch-all diagnosis doctors sometimes use: idiopathic (which basically means “we don’t know”).

One doctor even prescribed a soft custom orthotic, which actually made things worse.

Recently I tried something different. Instead of soft shoes with cushioned soles, I switched to a pair of old-school, structured Goodyear-welted shoes with a firm sole and supportive insole. You know the kind everyone wore before the sneaker craze of the 1980’s. The difference was immediate. Instead of pressure building in the ball of my foot, it suddenly felt like my entire foot was evenly supported.

After just a couple days the pain was gone.

It made me realize something interesting. Many modern shoes are designed around soft cushioning, but cushioning is not the same thing as support. For some feet — especially people with high arches or forefoot pressure — soft shoes can allow the foot to collapse unevenly and concentrate pressure right in the ball of the foot.

If you have high arches and are dealing with stubborn ball-of-foot pain, or that strange feeling like your sock is bunched up under your foot, it might be worth taking a look at the structure of the shoes you’re wearing and try an old-school leather sole with a firm supportive insole.

After all, man was built to walk the earth barefoot — not on sponges.