Don't Let Foot Pain Spoil Your Summer Fun

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You wake up, put a foot on the floor to get out of bed, and a shooting pain runs down the back of your foot. You lace up your hiking boots and feel a sharp pain in your heel. These are some of the common ways your feet complain about a muscle or bone problem. Here is what you need to know about foot pain and how to prevent it from ruining your summer activities.  

Bone Spurs  

This is a tiny bone growth under your heel. It is a calcium deposit that randomly appears on the heel in response to the stresses of tendons pulling on the bone. Bone spurs are often painless, but some can produce significant heel pain, preventing you from stepping on your foot. They also are known to cause another painful condition on the bottom of your foot: plantar fasciitis.  

Treatment of Bone Spurs  

You can't prevent bone spurs from happening. Non-invasive treatment is effective and easily repeated should you have a recurrence of the bone spur. Some of the treatments include:

• exercises and physical therapy to strengthen the muscles on the bottom of the foot.
• custom shoe inserts to prevent the bone spur from irritating the muscles and tendons.
• anti-inflammatory medications to reduce swelling around the bone spur.
• steroid injections into the heel to reduce pain and inflammation.

Treatment continues until the bone spur is absorbed by the heel bone and the pain goes away.

Plantar Fasciitis  

The plantar fascia is a band of tissue that runs along the bottom of the foot from heel to toe. Should this tissue become irritated and inflamed, it can be so painful that you can't put weight on your foot. The irritation may have occurred the previous day so many people experience this right as they get out of bed in the morning.  

Prevention and Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis  

This condition is often created by overuse or irritation of your foot and can be avoided by:

• adequate warm up before exercise or playing a sport
• take breaks when exercising to allow the tendons in your feet to relax
• proper-fitting shoes that support the bottom of the foot

The treatment goal is to reduce pain until the tissue band relaxes and the inflammation goes away. This includes:

• pain and anti-inflammatory medications
• cool packs to ease the pain
• physical therapy to stretch and relax the plantar fascia
• shoe inserts to reduce pressure on the tissue band
• steroid injections in the foot to reduce pain and swelling

Achilles Tendonitis  

This is an inflammation of the large Achilles tendon that runs from your heel to your calf muscles. It causes pain when you move your foot up and down and is also due to an irritation of the tendon by injury or overuse. Pain in this tendon can make walking difficult.  

Prevention and Treatment of Achilles Tendonitis  

Prevention of this condition is similar to that of plantar fasciitis, including:

• warm-up exercises to slowly stretch out the Achilles tendon
• preventing overuse by taking breaks during sports or exercise to let your feet relax
• wearing shoes that don't rub against the tendon

Treatment is focused on short-term pain relief until the tendon inflammation goes away and includes:

• physical therapy of your foot to increase the circulation and decrease swelling
• exercises to stretch out the constricted muscle and tendon
• anti-inflammatory medication for pain relief

Each of these painful foot conditions can keep you off your feet. Become familiar with how to prevent them and how to keep them from becoming so painful that they impact your summer activities. Contact a company like Accurate Foot & Diabetic Care for more information.

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24 August 2015