Banishing Foot Pain Once And For All

Since the foot is such a complicated part of the human body, it makes sense that taking care of it should be fairly complicated, too. But much of basic foot care is common sense and can be done by anyone without too much trouble.

The first and most basic part of foot care is wearing the right kind of shoes. It’s thought that between 50-70% of all people either don’t know their actual shoe size or they wear the wrong size on purpose. This is a really bad idea. Wearing the wrong size of shoe can lead to chronic foot pain to begin with but can lead to all kinds of problems in the future, including arthritis. Don’t be afraid to ask the clerk at the shoe store to measure your feet so you’ll know what to ask for in the future. But just choosing the proper size is only part of what you need to do. Making sure the shoe has proper arch support is just as important as choosing the right size.

Proper arch support provides comfort to your foot and it helps to stave off fallen arches later in life. Also, try to wear sneakers or running shoes as often as possible, especially when exercising. Sneakers, running shoes or basketball shoes provide proper cushioning and they also make sure you have the proper room around the ball of your feet and your toes.

Any women can tell you that if you want to experience foot pain, walk around for a day in high heels. Heels, combined with fashionable narrow-toed shoes are a leading cause of foot pain as well. Try to avoid these torture machines at all costs, or keep them for special occasion when you know you won’t be standing for long periods. Also, replacing your shoes on a regular basis is important, too since even the most expensive shoes break down over time.

Another major cause of foot pain is injury during exercise. This can be avoided by learning proper warm-up techniques. Stretching is extremely important when it comes to exercise, and things like muscle pulls and strains can be avoided if you remember to warm up before exercising. Also, don’t go crazy with the amount of exercise you do right off the bat. If you’re starting an exercise regimen, start slow and build up over time. It’s great that you’ve decided to start exercising, but don’t hurt yourself in the process.

A final tip in helping to avoid foot pain is to simply lose weight if you are carrying some excess weight. Your feet literally take a pounding every time you go out and walk, regardless of how much you weigh, so simply dropping a few pounds can make a huge difference on the bones, ligaments and the arch of the foot. Also, do your best to keep the feet dry and in good shape, this will help reduce calluses and corns over time.

There are other common sense tips, of course, that don’t even need to be repeated here, like if you’re going to go out and lift really heavy loads, put on a pair of steel-toed boots. The best advice is to use your head and you and your feet will have a wonderfully long comfortable life together.

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Banish Foot Pain Once and For All

Unfortunately, there are more than 100 different kinds of arthritis that can affect the human body. The most common form, however, is known as osteoarthritis. This form develops as we all get older and is known as the wear and tear style of arthritis. What happens essentially is that the cartilage that covers the end of the bones wears out. The result is some of the worst pain you can experience, as well as swelling and inflammation in the joint. The tough thing about arthritis, it can develop in a joint that was injured, even if the injury happened years, or even decades before. This is known as traumatic arthritis and has the same symptoms as osteoarthritis.

Since there are so many bones and joints in the foot, it is a prime spot for the development of arthritis. If it does develop in the foot, it can alter the way you walk, therefore putting strain and pressure on parts of the foot where there was none before and that can bring on a whole host of other problems. The parts of the foot that are most commonly affected by arthritis are the ankle joint, the heel, the arch and the big toe. The big toe is also a prime spot for the development of painful bunions.

The symptoms of arthritis in the foot is pretty straight forward. If you’re experiencing stiffness, nagging, throbbing pain, tenderness, swelling and reduced motion, you might have arthritis. Also, not being able to walk for long distances is another sign of possible arthritic problems.

Getting your arthritis diagnosed isn’t a difficult process, but you can help your doctor out a bunch by keeping a pain journal. Once the pain becomes chronic and its apparent that it’s not going away by it’s self, sit down and write everything you remember about the pain: when did it start, how long does it hurt for, does it hurt during exercise or after, does it hurt at night when you sleep, does it get worse when you walk or run and does it migrate to different parts of the foot and ankle?

When you get to the doctors office, you can expect to give the doctor your medical history and the contents of your pain diary. He or she will then give you a physical exam to try to detect the cause of the pain you’re feeling. The doctor may also do what is called a gait analysis. This is a test so that the doctor can see how you walk and see how your leg and foot line up. If the doctor isn’t able to make a proper diagnosis based on the information so far, he may request a series of x-rays to be done to see if the bones have degraded at all in the foot. Other tests, such as a CT scan or an MRI might be used as well.

Treating your arthritis is difficult. There is no cure and often the damage suffered isn’t reversible. Treatment is geared towards relieving pain more than anything. A doctor will usually prescribe the use of over-the-counter pain killers, such as Tylenol or Advil to kill pain. Supports in the shoes are another common treatment that can cut down on pain. Using a brace or a cane might be necessary as the arthritis gets worse. For severe cases, surgery is common.

Overall, arthritis isn’t a fun process. It can be debilitating and extremely painful. But if you take care of your feet over time, watch your weight and wear properly fitted shoes, you should be able to avoid it.

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One of the most common and most debilitating conditions of the feet that people suffer from is plantar fascittis. Don’t let the name confuse you, it doesn’t have anything to do with a guy in a straw hat digging holes in your feet and waiting for his carrots to grow. Let’s break down this confusing name. Plantar refers to the bottom of the foot, ‘fasci’ is the tissue that runs the entire length of the bottom of the foot from the heel to the toes, and ‘ittis’ means inflammation. Plantar Fasciitis is exactly what the name says it is, irritation of the tissue on the bottom of the foot, usually at the heel.

But what causes this painful irritation? The causes can be many. Everything from a dramatic change in activities, a complete lack of arch support over a long period of time, a lack of flexibility in the muscles in the calf (stretching really is important!), obesity, injury to another part of the body that causes your walking style to change, wearing shoes with bad support or no cushioning on hard surfaces or just spending too much time on your feet. It’s no wonder that even with expensive, supportive shoes, Plantar Fasciitis is the number one ailment among restaurant workers.

Diagnosing Plantar Fasciitis isn’t difficult. The ailment is so common, it’s often something your doctor, even your general practitioner can spot without too much trouble. Your doctor will ask you about any recent activities you’ve had that involve extreme stress on your feet, like sports. Once you describe your symptoms to the doctor and your medical history, a diagnosis should be easy but if the doctor is still unsure, he can use x-rays to help.

Treating Plantar Fasciitis runs the gamut from common sense solutions to surgery. Most doctors will recommend a seven to eight week treatment program that usually includes things like stretching exercises to help the affected calf muscles and to help stretch fascia tissue on the bottom of the foot. Massaging the bottom of the foot with ice to help with pain, a change to low-impact workouts like swimming or biking instead of high-impact workouts like basketball or jogging.  REALLY good shoes with proper heal and arch supports, taping the bottom of the foot, the use of over-the-counter painkillers like Advil, Tylenol or Aleve, physical therapy, sometimes involving electric stimulation to the bottom of the foot and extensive massage therapy, as well.

Failing that, a doctor might recommend you wear what is called a night splint for a time. The splint immobilizes the foot in a slightly bent position while you sleep to keep the fascia stretched. Another popular treatment is cortisone injections into the foot to kill the pain and even put a cast on your foot from one to three months. The last case scenario is surgery, but since studies have shown that it’s not always successful, doctors are usually not quick to recommend it.

In conclusion, Plantar Fasciitis can be a nasty situation so the best advice you can follow is to take it easy when your feet tell you they are tired, wear a good pair of shoes and watch your weight.

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When it comes to foot pain, everyone is different, but the most common sign is going to be discomfort in one or more parts of the foot. The first thing a foot pain sufferer needs to do is to make sure the source of the pain isn’t coming from something that isn’t easily fixed, such as an ill-fitting pair of shoes or a high pair of heels. With those common culprits removed from the picture, it’s a good idea to notice things like where the pain starts and if it migrates at all, what time of day and during what activity the pain is most acute, a particular event that might have caused the pain, any lingering health concerns that might have attributed to the pain and so on.

The symptoms of foot pain are pretty much common sense. Anything that you feel in your foot that isn’t right. Things like swelling that won’t go away, random numbness for no apparent reason in the feet, unexplained redness and either the feet being too warm or too cold without any cause. Considering how important your feet are to your basic health and wellbeing, don’t’ wait for one of these specific symptoms to worsen before you go seek the advice of a doctor.

Diagnosing foot pain is a fairly straight-forward affair. A podiatrist, is a foot specialist, and goes to school for a lot of years to be able to hold someone’s foot in their hands and listen to the type of pain you’re suffering from and be able to tell you what the problem is. You should expect your doctor to ask you about the types of shoes you wear and what physical activity you engage in that might have resulted in the foot pain. If the doctor is unable to diagnose your condition by touch, medical science has equipped the intrepid doctor with several tools that might just do the job.

X rays are used to take a picture of the inside of your foot using low doses of radiation. While excessive exposure to x-rays has proven to be bad for you, getting an x-ray once in a while won’t hurt. The x-ray can tell the doctor if there are small breaks, fractures or fissures that could be causing your foot pain.

MRI machines (magnetic resonance imaging) can be used in the same way as the x-ray to see inside your foot without having to cut you open. The MRI machine uses magnets to make images on a computer screen. The doctor can then tell if there are any problems with the bones and the soft tissue inside the foot. It can also help pinpoint small fractures that might not be clear on the x-ray.

If the doctor thinks it’s arthritis that’s causing your foot pain, he can request a synovial fluid analysis. Don’t let the big medical name fool you, it’s a straight forward procedure where the doctor takes fluid samples from the joints in the foot and tests them to see if the surrounding joint is arthritic.

A proper diagnosis is extremely important to ensure that you are properly treating and curing your type of foot pain.

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The human foot is made up of 26 different bones (25% of all the bones in the body), 22 distinct joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. The foot can be broken down into six separate sections: the heel, the instep, the sole, the ball of the foot, the toes and the toenails. Since this section of the body is so complex, many different ailments take place in the feet.

Pressure related problems: An average day of walking around is the equivalent of hundreds of tons of pressure to your feet. Injuries like fallen arches can result after a lifetime of being on your feet all day, every day. Long term effects of fallen arches can result in chronic knee pain and shin splints.

Traumatic injuries: As any professional athlete can tell you, traumatic foot injuries can be a pain in the, well, foot. Broken toes and foot bones can take months to heel, and Achilles tendon injuries can be debilitating for life. One of the most common injuries to the foot is simply dropping something heavy onto the foot and crushing one or more bones in the process.

Ingrown toenails: An ingrown toenail is when the side or the corner of the toenail end up digging into the skin and causing moderate to severe pain, swelling, redness and in extreme cases, infection. They can usually be cured by simply soaking the toe in hot water for about 30 minutes and then placing thin fabric under the nail to keep it from digging into the foot. In serious cases, minor surgery might be needed to remove the nail from the foot.

Plantars warts: Plantar warts are small, usually round warts that appear on the sole of the foot and are caused by the HPV virus. They sometimes have small black specks with them that will bleed when the surface is punctured. The wart is usually covered by a layer of hard skin due to the pressure on the foot during periods of standing and walking. It can be spread by use of common showers or around swimming pools. They are usually treated by using regular over-the-counter wart medicine containing acid.

Arthritis: Arthritis in the foot is extremely common in older people since the foot alone has 33 joints. Any sort of traumatic injury to the foot can cause arthritis in the future.

Heel conditions: The two most common causes of severe pain in the heel belong to plantar fasciitis and bone spurs in the heel. Bone spurs are caused by a calcium deposit attached to the bone of the heel. They can go from mildly annoying to excruciating depending on the size. We’ll discuss plantar fasciitis later.

Athelte’s foot: Athlete’s foot is caused by a fungus that attacks the feet. It ranges from being almost painless to causing extreme burning and itching all over the toes and sole of the foot. There are many different over the counter remedies for Athlete’s foot, but if you use many common areas barefoot, you may have to treat it over and over again as it’s easy to catch.

Nerve problems in the feet: Most nerve problems in the feet are caused by the long-term effects of diabetes. The nerves in the feet are the longest nerves in the body and are susceptible to neuropathy and other ailments brought on by diabetes.

Diabetes: Other than the aforementioned nerve problems, diabetes seriously effects the circulation in the body and many serious diabetes sufferers have lost fingers, toes and even feet due to lack of circulation due to a lifetime of diabetes.

Congenital foot conditions: Birth defects can range from misshapen feet to bone protrusions, to nerve problems. Most congenital problems can be dealt with through surgery.

You can see from this brief overview how many aspects there are to the feet and why foot pain can be such a common and complicated problem for many people.

For more information on all varieties of Foot Pain and how to effectively treat them, please visit:
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Hi and welcome to the Banishing Foot Pain Once And For All blog. Coming up are going to be some great articles all about the different sorts of foot ailments and how to treat and prevent the pain that accompanies them. Make sure you pop back soon for some fantastic tips to keep you up and running!