Chiropractic Patients Association
Cocked up toe syndrome, mimicking multiple sclerosis (MS)
Mrs D writes...
Four months ago I developed a tingle in my left foot. After a few days it slowly crept up my left calf. At the same time it was also affecting my right foot and lower leg muscles. Then I noticed that my toes were painful and a bit sore. This was happening from time to time. I started to worry when the pins and needles reached my hands and also my forearms felt heavy.
The knuckles on both hands started to feel sore as if I had thumped a wall. After a couple of weeks I started to have the occasional sharp pain in my elbows and shoulders. These symptoms had now been progressing for a few months and I was beginning to feel very depressed and down.
I went to my G.P who recommended that I had a blood test to assess ‘my systemic system’ and to rule out multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid factors. I was then quite worried that I had a serious disease. After having a blood test I then awaited the results. On returning to the doctors they were found to be normal. I was then told to go home and see if the symptoms subsided. Which of course, they didn’t.
After being told that everything was normal I felt like a fraud because I still had the symptoms, but of course no one could see them. I got more and more depressed. I then decided that I would go and see Dr Masters who had previously treated me for a back injury sustained as a result of a riding accident.
Dr Masters diagnosed a condition described as ‘steel toecap’ syndrome, or ‘Wellington boot’ syndrome - ‘cocked-up toe’ syndrome. I was told to remove my heel-less shoes (the ones which I had bought four months ago). I looked at Dr Masters as if he was mad, but I took my shoes off and walked around the room and the pains had gone. It was explained to me that the foot has many more nerves connected to the brain whereas the spine has a much smaller area. The reason that I was getting the pain was because I had been constantly cocking my toes up when I rested and then gripping with my toes when I walked to keep my shoes on. This was causing my spine to become exhausted.
I have now purchased a pair of shoes with ankle straps whereas the other shoes just had no heel support - they were more like mules. The pains and numbness have now gone. I am now feeling that I can get on with my life again as normal.
Dr. Masters writes....
30 years ago a shoe manufacturer brought out a wooden clog with a shaped sole and an adjustable strap across the toes. These shoes were intended as an ‘exercise sandal’ to be only worn a few hours a day. Soon the shoe became a fashion accessory as it proved to be so popular and the ‘exercise’ label was dropped for commercial reasons. In order to wear the shoe you had to continually cramp the toes together. This meant that on one part of the foot the nerves were continually over stimulated and the nerves became fatigued.
In Mrs. D’s case, as she was continually gripping with her toes when wearing her favourite shoes, when she took off her shoes, she walked with the toes ‘cocked-up’. When you grip with your toes you stimulate the posterior muscle groups and when you cock-up the toes the anterior or front group of muscles is stimulated. As she spent most of her time gripping with the toes, this caused a condition in which she was over stimulating the posterior foot muscle group and this caused the foot muscle/nerve group to fatigue.
The right brain controls activity on the left side of the body, but movement on the left side of the body reflexively excites the right brain. This reflexive stimulation on one side of the body allows the opposite brain to prepare muscles for action on its own side. Importantly, the brain could not inhibit pain on its same side.
(This is why it is said of Gypsies when they treat a lame horse they will hit a leg on the opposite side and the lameness quickly reduces.) If the system is over stimulated then it fatigues and fails; if under-stimulated, the system also fails. This situation can mimic the strangest of conditions and feelings.
Mrs. D’s symptoms paralleled all sorts of problems, but the solution was simple once the physical condition was diagnosed correctly and disease processes were ruled out by the GP’s tests.
