Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 4

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 4

How to prevent heel pain or plantar fasciitis:

1. Make sure that you have properly fitted shoes.  Many patients come into my office with shoes that are too big or too small.  If you need help, call shoe stores or your Podiatrist to get your feet measured.  Unfortunately for many people, their feet do not stay the same size throughout their lifetime.
2. Replace your shoes regularly.  Although shoes can get expensive, it is usually cheaper then visits to your doctor or time off from work due to foot pain. Check the bottom of your shoes; if you see that there is a lot of wear in the heels or soles of the shoes, it is time to get new shoes!
3. Make sure that you get shoes that are supportive and have cushioning!  A good way to check both of these is to bend the shoe from the heel to the toe, if you can fold the shoe in half, it doesn’t have the support that you need. If you can press down on the inside of the shoe at the heel and there is no cushioning then that is not the shoe for you unless you can remove the innersole and put your orthotics in for your cushioning. 
4. Prepare yourself before exercise; make sure that you stretch before and after exercise as well as getting warmed up. 
5. Although exercise is important, it is also very important to pace yourself.  Many people want to start out by running or walking 10 miles the first day.  If you have not been exercising start out with 5 minutes.  Always remember no matter how far you go, say 5 minutes from home; you still have 5 minutes to go back, unless you have just gone around the block that leads back to your home! 
6. Make sure that you are taking care of your total body when exercising, if you do not have proper nutrition and support for the rest of your body, you will not be able to sustain any activity properly.
7. Although no one wants to talk about this, if you are overweight, you need to lose weight.  Multiply your weight by gravity:  g = 9.8 m/s² and 32 ft/s^{2 and} that will be the force that is hitting your feet when you walk. 
8. Remember if you are overweight, you didn’t put it on in a day or a week or even a month, so you want to take it off at the same pace that you put it on! Small changes can make a huge impact, such as swapping out a soda or pop for a glass of water.  Only eating half of the bag of M & M’s, and leaving at least a small portion of food on your plate at every meal!

Next: we will discuss what your doctor can do for you if you have heel pain plantar fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis Heel Pain Part 3

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 3

Other Causes of Heel Pain:

Excessive Pronation:

Pronation is what allows the foot to absorb shock as it hits the ground in walking.  When you have too much of this flexible motion and flattening of the arch, it is called excessive pronation.

If you will notice, when you are walking, your heel will hit the ground first, then the foot rolls toward the big toe before it lifts up for your next step.  As the foot rolls toward the big toe, it becomes rigid and lifts the arch up.  If you have excess pronation, you get excessive inward motion which puts extra stress on all of the ligaments and tendons that attach to your heel bone.  This can also lead to extra stress and injury on your lower back, hips and knees. 

There are some other conditions that can lead to heel pain:

1.       Bone Bruise: this can occur as the result of trauma.

2.       Haglund’s Deformity or Pump Bump, this is an enlargement of bone where the Achilles tendon attaches to bone.  As your shoe presses on this area, you develop increased pain in this area. 

3.       Arthritis: Psoriatic Arthritis, Reiters Syndrome or Rheumatoid Arthritis can create pain in this area.

4.       Bursitis: This is similar to tennis elbow where a small sack of fluid fills up and creates pressure in this area. 

So, as you can see so far there are many different causes of heel pain.  Which will lead to the next portion of our discussion: treatment.  With so many different causes of heel pain, there are many different treatments for heel pain. 

Even though your neighbor, or cousin or friend had heel pain and received a certain type of treatment for their heel pain, your treatment plan may be very different.

Plantar Fasciitis Part 2

What are heel spurs?

This is a bony growth on your heel bone.  We all think of bone as the skeleton in the
corner of the classroom in high school biology. Bone is actually a dynamic living tissue.  When bone is put under stress at the site of
a tendon or ligament, such as the Achilles Tendon or the Plantar Fascia, it can
make the bone bleed.  When bone bleeds,
it forms new bone to heal.   These spurs can be seen
on X-rays and can extend out as far as half an inch.  Fortunately, the spur is not the actual
source of the problem.

What is plantar fasciitis?

The band of tissue that runs on the bottom (plantar
surface) of the foot is called the plantar fascia.  If you add an itis onto a word it means
inflammation, so this is inflammation of the plantar fascia.  This is very common in athletes that need to
do a lot of jumping.  This can be
devastating for basketball players and is quite painful!

The plantar fascia can become stretched over time beyond
where it normally should go.  This can
lead to small tears in the fascia which leads to inflammation.  This in turn may lead to a heel spur. 

Improper shoes with no support may aggravate this condition.  I must say that the majority of patients that
come into my office, are sporting a pair of cute flip flops or other shoes with
no support. 

With plantar fasciitis the first step after a period of
rest is often the most painful.  This is
due to the plantar fascia elongating or stretching out suddenly.  Most people find with walking that the pain
decreases or lessens, but will return after a period of rest. 

Stay tuned to learn more about plantar fasciitis!! 

Plantar Fasciitis Heel Spur Syndrome Part 1

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!

Night Splints

Many patients with Plantar Fasciits or Heel Pain need a night splint.  Here at Surprise Foot and Ankle Specialists we have night splints to help.

Purpose of the Night Splint:  To place a light streatch on the plantar fascia while you sleep.  Many people experience pain with the first step our of bed in the morning.  The best night splints are the dorsal types which go on top of the foot and leg. 

If you or a friend or family member are experiencing plantar fasciitis.  Come in to:


Surprise Foot And Ankle Specialists
14800 West Mountain View Blvd. Ste 160
Surprise, AZ 85376
623-584-5556
623-584-0755
dpmkirk.vpweb.com

fixingfeet.com

This is just one part of our comprehensive approach to treating your plantar fascia pain!!