Heel Pain/Plantar Fasciitis: What is it?
This is part one in a series of articles about heel pain. Why do I have this? I like to tell patients that it is caused by telling lies, but they quickly realize that this will not help their foot. So on to the real causes of foot pain. And why you should go to see your Podiatrist and not your neighbor for this problem.
There are a number of different causes of heel pain that we will go over. These will include: Bone bruises, heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, excessive pronation and other diseases of the heels.
Heel pain is usually caused by a problem with your walking gait or biomechanics. This will put excess stress and pressure on the soft tissues that attach to the heel bone and the bone itself. The causes of this stress can vary from wearing improper shoes, being overweight, or a bruising that occurred while walking, jumping or running on hard surfaces.
There are 26 bones in each of your feet and the heel bone or calcaneus is the largest one. There are over 100 tendons, muscles and ligaments in the foot and 33 joints. All of these are exposed to outside influences such as your shoes and the ground we walk on. So our choices of where we work, what surface of floor we have in our homes and what type of shoes we wear will all influence whether or not we have pain in our heels.
One of the main reasons to see your Podiatrist about your heel pain is that you can have some arthritic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, infectious problems such as osteomyelitis or a bone tumor. A quick set of x-rays and sometimes blood work can rule this out!! And hopefully, although you had to go to your Podiatrist, take time out of your day, and pay your co-pay or deductible, you will be lucky enough to just have your regular old heel pain that can be treated simply. Continue to follow along and I will go over more causes, and treatment options for your heel pain!
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