Heel pain. Treatment

Contents:

• Heel pain. Reasons
• External factors to cause a heel pain
• Diseases to provoke the pain
• How to treat a heel?
• Initial care under the pain
• Gymnastics to strengthen an arch and ease the heel pain
• Folk remedies to treat the heel
• Prevention measures

Heel pain. Reasons

Specialists claim that different factors are the reasons of an acute heel pain. It’s important to known that one shouldn’t stand the pain as far as a disease to cause this pain can be developed in a more dangerous form. In order to get rid of a discomfort while walking it’s necessary to know the real reason of this malady.

The main reasons are the external negative factors as well as lots of other diseases.

External factors to cause a heel pain

• Unconformable shoes – if you change heels for an absolutely flat and non-absorbed sole too sharply.
• Excessive physical activity – one of the main reasons of such problem. In case you had a trauma before it’s better to apply to a doctor as soon as possible.

Diseases to provoke the pain

• Heel fissure – if you have never faced with such problem as heel fissure you probably can’t imagine the pain it causes. Deep fissures in a thick skin layer trigger off an acute pain and periodic bleeding.
• Plantar fasciitis – an inflammation to be developed in a dense connective tissue development, located on a foot planter surface in a form of a wide band. The pain in heel is connected with a sprain and the following inflammation of the fascia.
• Calcaneal spur – is an osteal wart on a plantar surface of a heel bone. The main symptom of the calcaneal spur is a morning pain of a heel when a person has just got up. One should undergo an ultrasound investigation to determine this problem.
• Chronic inflammatory diseases of joints – rheumatoid, reactive, psoriatic arthritis, poker back – these diseases are caused by metabolism dysfunction. The pain is determined by an acute inflammation of heel cords. It’s possible to define one of these diseases by means of blood analysis.

How to treat a heel?

The heel pain treatment depends on the reasons to cause it:

• Uncomfortable shoes – if you wear high heels then try to choose a comfortable shoe, sit as much as possible without shoes. To avoid a heel load, buy slippers on a small heel or platform.
• Fissures – first of all you should visit a dermatologist to exclude any foot mycosis. Another reason of fissures is skin dryness, especially in summer. To prevent deep fissures it’s necessary to moisturize feet using creams and remove a cornified skin by means of pedicure tools.

• Plantar fasciitis – unfortunately, there is no a universal treatment method but there are some ways to relieve the condition and prevent the following disease progressing.
• It is very important to reduce foot loads and restrict yourself in sport activity (running or walking).
• To reduce edema and painful sensations, it’s recommended applying an ice cube to your feet or to take some anesthetics which contain ibuprofen.
• Before getting out of bed, do a foot warm-up.
• A complex treatment of this problem:
  1. foot off-load form excess pressure;
  2. getting rid of excess weight;
  3. use foot bearing and arch support;
  4. physical therapy: mud baths, ultrasound therapy;
  5. medicament therapy – corticosteroid preparations;
  6. operative intervention to remove osteal wart.

• Reactive arthritis – if the inflammation of a calcaneal zone is provoked by clamidiosis, gonorrhea and other genital infections then one should start a treatment as soon as possible. Distinctive features of a reactive arthritis are a discomfort in and around genitals, joints and eyes inflammation.
• Inflammatory processes of a calcaneal region. The reason of inflammation can be determined after a medical investigation.

First aid under the heel pain

• Apply an ice cube to a foot and move it from toes towards a heel.
• Take a foot bath with a room temperature
• Take some pills to contain Ibuprofen: Ibufen, Marcofen, Nurafen, Solpaflex;
• Apply any anti-inflammatory ointment on a foot to reduce the pain (indomethacin, hydrocortisone, butadiene etc.).

Gymnastics to strengthen an arch and ease the heel pain

1. Stretch your foot and calves by massaging them.
2. Lie on a bed and pull the foot towards yourself till you feel some pain and then stretch it as much as possible. Repeat this exercise 5-7 times at a slow pace.
3. Walk on your toes and then on heels stretching the arch periodically.
4. Do some heels-lifting
5. Put a towel on the floor and try to make folds and smooth them. Then pick up the towel using your toes.
6. Roll a small massage ball.

Folk remedies to treat the heel

You can also apply a propolis compress to ease the pain. Leave it for the whole night and cover this region with a dry tissue.

To treat a spur take several cabbage stumps, grate them and cover with boiling water. Let it cool and put your feet into this water.

Another compress is based on ammonia: mix vegetable oil and ammonia 1:1. Moisten a cotton disc in this mixture and apply it to a tender spot.

Preventive measures

1. Your feeding should be saturated with vegetables and proteins. A dysfunction of metabolic processes in one’s organism usually provokes lots of inflammatory diseases, including a pain of heels.
2. Take care of your weight as an excessive foot load leads to a sprain and inflammatory process.
3. It is not allowed to go in for sport if you feel the heel pain.
4. Try to choose comfortable shoes.
5. Use special orthopedic supports: side plate, foot bearing and so on. They help to reduce a load on an arch and prevent sprain of ligaments and fascia.
6. Pedicure is very important if you have such problem. Don’t forget to remove a cornified skin layer from a plantar surface.
7. It’s important to massage your feet and legs every day.