Chapter 1 Let me start out by saying


I wrote this book with one purpose in mind; To make sure no one (and I mean no one) need deal with sesamoiditis for months or years like I did. You and I are going to get through this problem. Had I known before what I know now, I would’ve saved myself a lot of aggravation, frustration, time and money!

This book will give you the information you need to understand sesamoiditis. I compiled the best and most current information into one book, in order to get you back into action as quickly as possible. I tried to be as comprehensive as possible so this book can serve as the one and only guide you’ll ever need to deal with sesamoiditis.

What makes me an expert? I run. I run a lot. I also run far. I’m an engineer. Both of my parents are medical doctors (radiologists). I’m well versed in physiology, anatomy, kinesiology and I hate being injured. I also have flat arches in both my feet. I’m a prime candidate for sesamoiditis and I had to deal with it for over 2 years. I traveled around the country, specifically to see the top orthopedic surgeons, sports podiatrists, sports pedorthists, homeopaths and nutrionists. The information contained in this book is a compilation of everything I learned from doctors’ visits and on my own. 

You may find pieces of this information on various websites in the same or different form, but you won’t find all of the information contained in this book anywhere. It just isn’t a high priority ailment and no one has written anything definitive on the subject.

Having an engineering-mind, I always want to break a system down and understand it from the inside-out. That’s what this book’s about. Your body is a system. Your foot is a feature of that system and if you have sesamoiditis, then there’s a problem.

I’ve already done the leg-work. I’ve been the guinea pig. I’ve gone through trials and tribulations dealing with this. I’ve paid monies to see sports podiatrists, orthopedic surgeons, pedorthists, acupuncturists, acupressurists and physical therapists.

I did whatever it took to get back to being able to distance-run. I ran into quite a few road-blocks and problems. I made mistakes left and right, and had to deal with a lot of misinformation.
So, my hope is that this book will allow you to bypass all of that. I want you back in action just like I needed to be back in action. When you win, I win.

Let me first give you some background of what’s physically going on and then I’ll explain the solution.

As an aside, let me tell you how I got sesamoiditis. Like I said, I run a lot. I’m an endurance athlete. What does an endurance athlete do? I run hundred mile ultra-marathons. (Any running course over 26.2 miles is considered an ultra-marathon) The courses I run are some of the most grueling in the world. I trail run on mountains, at elevation, across many different kinds of landscapes. I’m always amazed at how hard some of the race courses actually are. Some are over 14,000 feet in elevation with jagged rock for miles.

That being said, in the last 4 years, even with all of the running I’ve done (over 200+ races), I’ve never had a foot problem whatsoever, not even a black toe or blister. I typically weigh around 225 pounds with a height of 6’4” and a 15 shoe size, so I’m clearly a likely candidate for problems as a runner. Nothing, nada, zilch in the way of foot problems.

There’s a small mountain (a hill really) near where I live that I cross over multiple times in a workout session. Parts of the trail have sharp jagged rock and I’d try to run as much of it as possible. Some days I’d be out there for 5 hours non-stop, going up and down as fast as I could in 115-degree weather. It was this exercise, and mostly running the jagged rock, that eventually caused my sesamoiditis. Of all the courses I’ve run, this hill was one of the easiest ones, yet it was the one that took me out. How’s that even possible? I don’t know, but what I can tell you is, it happened. And the worst part was that I had no idea what sesamoiditis was. I’d never heard of it before. So what did I do? I ran through the pain and kept going. The worst thing you could possibly do.

This book should shed some light on why you can’t out-smart a sesamoid injury and what you can do to get over this horrendous problem without making things worse.

It may seem a little odd that there’s a section on your attitude. However, I believe that the reason people fail at anything, including curing themselves of ailments is because they lose hope or they don’t follow through and do everything they need to do in order to fix the problem. If you’re the alpha-type personality I am, maybe you don’t need this attitude adjustment, and if not, feel free to skip that section. However, there is one undeniable fact to having the section and that is “It can’t hurt”.


Let’s get this problem cured.

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