11/15/2018    Howard J. Dananberg, DPM,

RE: VT Podiatrist Explains How Orthotics Improve Back Pain (Joshua Kaye, DPM)

Joshua, the answers to the posed questions are
easily available on the Internet. Had even minimal
time been spent researching my background, your
letter would never have written in the first
place. But since you chose to write to PM News
without doing your homework, I’ll do it instead.

Here are some of my accomplishments in the field
of gait style and chronic back and postural pain.
I am a contributing editor to JAPMA and have been
for decades. I am a long-term consultant to
Tekscan, the makers of the F-scan in-shoe pressure
analysis system. I received the Astra award in
1986 for my original work on "Functional Hallux
Limitus and its Relationship to Gait Efficiency."

I won the Scholl’s Award in 1994 for the
Outstanding Clinical Paper of the Year Award
published in JAPMA describing the impact of
sagittal plane dysfunction on chronic postural
symptoms. I have published a long-term outcome
study in JAPMA in 1999 which followed medical
endpoint chronic lower back pain patients for
greater than one year after foot orthotic
treatment was initiated. This paper has been cited
worldwide and is the source for the quote of 84%
improvement. The significant of this is the
duration. Lower back pain is a recurring disease.

Maintaining improvement for greater than one year
is an important distinction in the world of back
pain research.

I published a paper as part of the faculty of the
World Congress on "Lower Back Pain" in Montreal
measuring the changes in hip extension during
single support phase when custom prescribed foot
orthotics were dispensed.

Hip extension is the preload mechanism for pre-
swing to swing phase. Without adequate extension,
pre-swing is compromised and the iliopsoas muscles
(primary hip flexors at toeoff) consequently
strain at their origin….the entire lumbar spine.
Hip extension was shown to be dramatically
improved (7.5 degrees to 13 degrees average) when
appropriately prescribed foot orthotics to
increase sagittal plane motion are used. And it
coordinated precisely with improved symptoms.
The author who wrote the Forbes piece took the
time to read these papers before writing this
article which was designed to simplify an
otherwise complex issue for the public.

I have lectured hundreds of times on this topic on
every continent in the world excluding Antarctica.
These have included podiatric, physical therapist,
and medical audiences. I am a founding member of
the Vasyli Medical Think Tank for Biomechanics and
whose seven other members include David Armstrong
(who needs no introduction) and Jenny McConnell,
the world-famous physical therapist.

I was awarded the MIT-Lemmelson Inventor of the
Week award for my invention of Insolia, a device
installed into millions and millions of women’s
high heeled shoes worldwide, and granted the APMA
product approval certification. I was named as one
of the 100 Most Influential Podiatrists in the US
by Podiatry Management multiple times. I hold
multiple utility patents worldwide for a wide
variety of products which are independently and
scientifically proven to truly make shoes more
comfortable and improve gait style and posture.
I trust that this adequately answers the questions
as to the background for this article and my
credentials.

I suggest that the next time you choose to write
publicly, do some research. You may save yourself
considerable embarrassment and perhaps learn about
something which you appear deficient. Below are a
few of the 36 reviewed articles I have authored
over my 40-year career. Note that the various
citations which include Churchill Livingstone and
the NIH. I have earned my world-renowned
reputation.

Howard J. Dananberg, DPM, (retired)

Dananberg, Howard J. “Gait Style and Function of
the SIJ” in Movement, Stability, and Lower Back
Pain, Ed, Vleeming, Mooney, Snijders, & Dorman,
Churchill Livingstone, June, 1998

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