Heel Pain and Life

So many people suffer from this day ruining clinical entity loosely labeled "heel pain". I often wonder what the staggering statistics would reveal about how many people encounter this at some point in their lives, especially since many people who deal with this will not enter the doctor's office at all, or wait until it has been bothersome and worsening for a number of months. Some will find out they will get better on their own. The rest will limp into the chair and tell us that they feel their life is in shambles because they are constantly in pain.

Many patients who deal with heel pain are most likely going to be under the common diagnosis of "plantar fasciitis". There are many other conditions that reveal themselves by heel pain as well, and these can be diagnosed by exclusion most times in a clinical setting. On it's own, plantar fasciitis is a relatively easy condition to treat, and there are many options to treat this nonsurgically. I will describe some simple stretch routines as well as ways to relieve this prior to any physician intervention.















Foot/Toe Stretch:
 Sit on a chair and place your ankle over the opposite knee.
 Grip toes and gently pull them back towards the knee, while holding the ankle to prevent it from moving.
 Feel the stretch in the sole of the foot all the way to the heel.
 Hold the stretch for 30 seconds.
 Repeat three times for each foot

Sometimes you can simply ice the foot with a frozen water bottle and roll this along the bottom of the foot at the end of the day for 3 to 10 minutes. Some people found that even having their significant others give a simple foot massage can alleviate these symptoms significantly. Also over the counter ibuprofen or other medicine (NSAID) can be useful. If this persists for more than a four week period of time without any relief, one should come see us at the Family Foot and Leg Center, PA so that we can get you over this hurdle and let you live without pain in the foot.