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I have been glancing through some frustrating articles (NYT , Dr Nick) which state Dr. Nigg claims include, "... In fact, he adds, there is no need to “correct” a flat foot" and " ... All Jason needs to do is strengthen his foot and ankle muscles and then try running without orthotics." and " ... As for “corrective” orthotics, he says, ... lead to a reduction in muscle strength."
Really ...is he being misquoted?

Note: I come from the opinion (from my limited reading) that foot orthoses can not 'correct'; that strengthening a muscle is not always sufficient to provide sufficient internal moments to ameliorate / eliminate pathologies; that foot orthoses do not necessarily lead to a reduction in muscle strength any more than without orthoses.

 

Dr "Nick" just makes stuff to suit his failed narrative ... you can safely ignore him.

 

There are two points here. There is Dr. Nick, as Craig correctly points out can be safely ignored. (see other threads on barefoot running)

Then there is you don't need to correct a flat foot. If the flat foot doesn't hurt, then it does not need correction. If it does hurt, then there are things you can do to prevent it from hurting that include muscle strengthening and altering the forces on the foot with things like orthotics. I agree that sometimes strengthening alone will not be enough to relieve symptoms.

 

I would tend to agree with Eric in that patients with flat feet don't necessarily need to be treated always. However, flat feet (i.e. flat longitudinal arch height feet with medially deviated subtalar joint axes) can also experience symptoms in the ankles, tibias, knees and low back, to name a few. In addition, these same flat feet may experience gait abnormalities which may lead them to experience vague fatigue type symptoms in the lower extremities and low back, and not in the feet. These "non-foot symptoms" can be treated quite successfully with appropriate foot orthoses and shoe therapy.

Therefore, individuals with "flat feet" may need to be "corrected" [better to say ''treated" than corrected] even if these individuals don't have foot pain. Careful history-taking by the foot-health clinician is sometimes the only way to know if these individuals are suffering from symptoms that are proximal to the foot that are direct result of their flatter longitudinal arch height and excessively medially deviated subtalar joint axis and the abnormal joint moments that result.

And, by the way, take what Dr. Nick says with a grain of salt.

 

agreed