Heel Pain

Heel pain, or pain you are experiencing on the back underside of your foot can cause great discomfort.  It can cause you the inability to walk. It can also cause you to not be able to wear shoes comfortably.  

There are lots of causes that can lead to heel pain. Such as poor fitting shoes, or even high heeled shoes.  Shoes that don’t fit well can put strain on your feet causing the under part of your foot to hurt. Standing a long time on your feet even in well supported shoes can lead to heel pain.  Overuse of your feet, such as walking, or marathons can lead to sore feet as well. Heel pain can be caused from sprains, strains, and trauma as well, from either exercise, or physical activities.  

Achilles Tendonitis

There are some medical conditions that can have a symptom of heel pain.  One of these is achilles tendinitis. The achilles tendon is the tendon that connects the calf muscle to the heel. Achilles tendonitis occurs as an overuse injury.  From either exercise, walking or running. It is very common in middle aged people who play tennis or basketball only occasionally. The best way to prevent this is to increase your exercise gradually and to stretch every day.  Resting and stretching can help ease the symptoms and pain caused by the tendonitis. (Achilles Tendon Stretches – Ask Doctor Jo) Very rarely does achilles tendonitis lead to surgery. The best thing to do is self care, but if your symptoms do not go away after sometime consult with a physician to see if there is anything else you can do.

Plantar Fasciitis

Another medical condition is plantar fasciitis Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain.  It is sometimes called heel spur syndrome. It is when the band, the plantar fascia, that connects your heel to your toes, becomes inflamed. Plantar fasciitis is very common in runners. Making sure you have good supportive shoes can help prevent getting this.  If you do have plantar fasciitis resting, icing, and stretching can help ease the pain and symptoms. Your physician may prescribe physical therapy in extreme cases. If pain continues after several months your doctor may go to giving you injections in your foot to ease the pain, or in extreme cases surgery.  Surgery consists of detaching the plantar fascia from the toes. This can cause foot weakness in your arch area.

Besides these two medical conditions most heel pain is just caused by normal things.  Like said before, poorly fitting shoes, or high heeled shoes, overuse. So somethings to do to prevent heel pain is as easy as making a trip to the shoe store.  Make sure you are wearing supportive shoes for the activities that you are doing. If you are on you feet a lot make sure to get to arch support so it isn’t putting too much strain on your heel.  There are heel cups or wedges for your shoes that you can put in your shoes to make them fit more comfortably. If you are experiencing heel pain right this moment the best thing to do is rest. R.I.C.E, the acronym most athletes know, for rest, ice, compression, elevation.  You can ice your heel up to three times a day to help ease the pain. Also stretching can help heal your heel. Make sure to stretch before and after exercising.

Foot pain is the worst when you are on your feet so often during the day.  Make sure you are taking good precautions to keep your feet well supported and pain free.  If you have constant heel pain with no ease see your physician who may run some scans, CT or Xray, to make sure there is nothing internally seriously wrong.

Sources: mayoclinic.org