How To Treat Bunions Part 1

I am going to talk to you today about how to treat your own bunions naturally. This is something of particular interest to me because I have been doing my own natural treatment on my bunion, which you can see on my right foot in the video.

I’m going to tell you a little about bunions but not a whole lot, as you can read more about that at bunion help . That’s a little more of the theory of bunions. I want this to be more practical.

I will tell you that a bunion, which by the way is Latin for turnip,  occurs between the hallux (Latin for enlargement), which is your big toe, and a long bone in your foot known as the metatarsal. We have got five metatarsals.

Hallux Valgus

What happens for a number of reasons I won’t go into, is that we get a leaning inwards of the big toe. This is known as hallux valgus. Think ‘L’ for leaning. That is the medical term. It’s that leaning that causes this swelling or protuberance through the joint line.

A bunion itself isn’t arthritis but certainly over time, that leaning can cause a lot of strain on the joint and that can lead to arthritis. I have some arthritis and one of the ways you can see is that the ability of the big toe to flex or to lift off in gait becomes very limited.

Hallux Limitus

In a normal foot, we should get 60 degrees of the toe lifting up into flexion. If I use a goniometer to measure, you can see I get closer to about 20 degrees. So I’ve already got something known as hallux limitus. In other words my hallux joint is limited in how much movement it has.

There are a lot of theories about what causes hallux limitus and bunions. A lot of people with high arched feet or flat feet develop bunions. It is thought that we over-pronate. We roll in when we are walking. That rolling in causes a leaning of the big toe and over time the bunion develops. It can often be red and swollen and painful. You often notice callus in the areas that become weight-bearing.

I have definitely got that going on with my foot. It isn’t the worst you’ll ever see. This is probably only a 4/10. I seem to be able to control any pain or swelling with some natural mobilisation of the big toe.

I am going to show you what it is that I do to keep mine from getting worse. Now first of all, the cynics out there may say that there is no evidence out there to prove this prevents anything. There isn’t any evidence as such but lack of evidence does suggest it is ineffective. The way I see it is that I am much better doing something proactive and it is keeping my toe comfortable and it doesn’t appear to be getting any worse. I have noticed the degree or angle changing and that is something you can probably measure on your own.

The first thing I do is warm up my big toe. I get it moving. Can you do any damage? Probably not. If you are able to move it as much as I can you’re not likely to damage it.