News Letter – Late Summer
 Well, we have had a very wet and windy summer, let’s hope that we end of with a great “Indian Summer”. This summer Shore Orthotics has been very busy, inundated with patients suffering from Plantarfasciitis and overuse sporting injuries. We will look at these two aspects and how we have evolved our treatment protocol to improve the outcomes.
Reading Running shoes – Sports Over Use Injuries.
 Summer as usual has seen an increase in activity and everything from netball to running. As Shore Orthotics specialises in gait assessment we had a number of patients either self-referred or referred from Health Care Professionals, to have their gait assessed and for Orthotic treatment.
The common thread to all these patients has been problems related to their shoes. We find that the one analysing tool, that in our experience is far better than any other, is “READING THE RUNNING SHOES”. I would like to just touch on this a little, why are the wear patterns of sports shoes more valuable than all the expensive Pedograph, video analysis 3D Gait labs?
We have three basic gait types namely; when we are cold; when we are warm and when we are tired. Now when we assess gait, mostly this is when the patient is cold, at best perhaps after a run they will be warm, but we never see a combination of all three. However the sports shoes give us this combination, by close inspection of the sports shoes. We can determine from a number of areas what the foot and therefore the rest of the body is doing most of the time. This is slightly more complex to explain in a newsletter; however what we often see is patients being sold neutral shoes because of a neutral (cold) gait and then after a short period having severely collapsed the medial heel counters. Using the “READING THE RUNNING SHOES” analysis we can identify the gait pattern of "warm and tired" aspect of gait.
Orthotic prescription and manufacture is therefore more accurate and the results are happy rehabilitated patients.
I would be happy to present “READING THE RUNNING SHOES” if there is sufficient interest. It really is easy, at least to determine the main causes of incorrect shoe selection and or shoe damage. For those who are seeing these types of patients this might an added arrow for their treatment quiver. Please contact me on garys@shoreorthotics.co.nz if you are interested in attending a presentation.
Coming soon
 Coming soon a new material that all the top brands are now incorporating into their garments to increase oxygen uptake. May soon be available as a top cover for custom orthotics. We are currently trialling this new material on our own orthotics.
 A very notable aspect of patient's feet this summer is that from a visual appearance many look like they have Pes Planus feet. However by using the Pedograph we notice that the vast majority, probably in excess of 80% only have heel and forefoot contact, in line with extreme Pes Cavus feet! We will cover this in detail in the next newsletter. A cost effective solution to foot and heel pain.
Over the past two years Shore Orthotics has formed a very strong relationship with Shoe Science. We find that Paul at the Albany branch, Charl at the Newmarket branch and the great staff at the Mt Eden and Takapuna branches really understands people and shoes. We highly value Shoe Science as an extension of our service and part of our success. Thanks to Murray and Chris for your great support. It is comforting to know that when patients are referred to a running shoe store that they will be properly serviced. Tip: the Nike Lunaglide range is the most underrated technical running shoe.
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