It is very common to have heel pain. Hassles can be felt in different ways. For some, the trouble is in and under the heel, while for others it feels most at the back around the heel.
You may suffer if you have overloaded your heel too much or too much for too long. The problems can also be due to bad shoes. Your heels can also be damaged if you fall, pedal obliquely or get hit on the heel.
The trouble usually goes away by itself, although it can take time. Sometimes you may need some kind of treatment of heel pain.
Why does he get sore?
There are five muscles on the back of the lower leg. The calf muscle is the strongest of them. When you walk and run, it is the calf muscle that allows the stump itself in the step, while other muscles, for example, bend the toes. The calf muscle is stuck in three places: the femur, tibia, and calf bone, and is joined to the heel bone by means of the strongest tendon of the body, the tendon.
The heel is a shock absorber
The heel bone is the largest leg in the foot. Under the heel bone are resilient tissues that act as a pillow. The cushion pressure against the heel bone as you walk and run, helping to reduce the load on the large joints that carry the bodyweight: the joints, knee joints, hip joints, and lower back.
In the hollow foot sits a broad and thick tendon called the plantar fascia. The tendon attaches to the heel bone on the underside of the foot and is an important support for the foot.
There are also so-called mucus sacs around the tendons and joints in the heel. Mucus sacks are small fluid-filled bags which, among other things, have the task of protecting the joints and facilitating the movements by forming fluid that acts as a lubricant for joints and tendons.
Overload and bad shoes
You can get sore throats both young and older. It is a common inconvenience and can be due to many different things. Sometimes you can have trouble without any obvious cause, but the most common reason for getting hurt is that you strain your heel too much for too long, so-called overload.
Many problems have to do with bad shoes. Poor cushioning in the soles or a shoe that is not built up enough to support the foot can cause you to strain your foot incorrectly when walking or running. You may get bruises if the back of the shoe is too tight or too loose. When the back is too tight, the pressure on the heel can also cause you pain.
Bad shoes can make the problem worse if you already have problems with your heels for some other reason.
You may be injured
Even though the heel is durable and can withstand a load many times higher than the body weight, it can be damaged if you, for example, fall, trample obliquely or get a blow to it. Then you can, for example, get a rupture in the heel of the heel or in the heel. If you get a rupture without breaking your health, it can sometimes cause long-term problems that need to be removed. In some cases, you may need surgery if the exercise does not produce results. It may also happen that the health ring goes off completely.
You can get inflammation in the mucus that sits outside the heel if you get a blow to the heel.
The heel bone can be broken if, for example, you fall from a high altitude or are involved in a traffic accident. In elderly people with the fragile skeleton, bone fractures in the heel can occur even after minor accidents.
When and where should I seek care?
Heel pain is rarely a sign of something serious. You can try to review your shoes in the first place and try to find out what triggered the problems. You can contact a health care center if you have tried to treat yourself and have not been well in a couple of weeks.
You can turn to a physiotherapist, naprapathy or chiropractor if you get hurt when you exercise or exercise. In some places in the country, there are also so-called sports injury clinics that you can contact.
Contact a health care center or emergency department immediately if you get very hurt or have difficulty following, for example, an accident.
Investigations
When you are at the health center, the doctor makes an assessment of your complaints. You can tell, among other things, how they started and describe in what situations it hurts. The doctor then examines the heel by looking and feeling it.
This is usually enough to diagnose, but sometimes other examinations, such as x-rays or ultrasound, may also be needed.
Different types of inconvenience
Pain and other problems with the heels can sit in different places and feel in different ways. Even when you have an irritation in the ankle due to congestion or inflammation in joint diseases you sometimes feel it in the heel.
heel spurs Appeals
The most common cause of heel pain is that the broad, thick tendon beneath the foot is overloaded. Then it usually hurts under, or on the inside of the heel as you walk and stand. The pain is usually at its worst during the first steps of the morning and often subsides after a while.
If the trouble persists for a long time, the body can react by forming limescale on the heel to protect and relieve the sore area. The calcification itself is not felt. It cannot be seen with the eye either, but on X-ray, it looks like a spur, hence the name heel spur.
When you have health problems, it is good to relieve the bad area. You can do that with good shoes and different kinds of inserts in the shoes. You may also need to get personally designed posts in the shoes if that doesn’t help. Treatment with physiotherapy where, among other things, you get stretched can relieve the problems.
You can get a cortisone syringe if nothing else helps. This causes the pain to disappear, but also increases the risk of overloading and injuring your foot. Therefore, doctors usually try to avoid it.
Health problems can last for a long time, often several months, but rarely more than a couple of years. Most people get good from their troubles.
Pain in the heel of the heel
When you have pain in the heel of the heel, it usually hurts and be sore at the back of the heel. You may also be a little swollen and your health may feel stiff. What usually triggers the hassle is that you have walked or exercised more than usual, but for the most part they go over again if you rest a period from training and long walks.
Physical therapy is usually the most important treatment if you have pain in the area at the heel of the heel. You often get strength training and stretch according to an individually designed program. Most people will benefit from this treatment. If you are not well, you may need different treatments, sometimes surgery. After an operation, you need to exercise for a long time to be good.
bursitis
The mucus sacs can become irritated if a joint or tendon is overloaded or subjected to prolonged pressure. When the mucus is irritated, inflammation can occur. Then more fluid is formed in the mucus and it becomes larger and can start to sore. Mucosal inflammation is also called bursitis. If you have a rheumatic disease, you can also get inflammation in the mucous membranes as part of the disease. The symptoms of heel pain are most common in women.
Inflammation in the mucus sack on the back of the heel, at the heel attachment, is often due to the fact that a shoe, boot or skate has pressed against the heel. You can often both see and feel that there is swelling, like a small pillow, on the back of the heel. The swelling can sit only on one side, or on both sides of the heel. Sometimes it can also feel tender.
If the inflammation is in the mucus inside the bracket of the heel, it often feels irritated there. Sometimes it can hurt, and hurt when you walk or run. It can also feel tender when you touch the area. It is usually running that triggers such inconveniences, but they can also be due to a stroke or kick to the heel.
The irritation of the mucus on the back of the heel usually disappears after a few weeks if you change to shoes that do not press against the heel. Sometimes you may also need to change exercise methods during a period of rest.
Mucosal inflammation inside the heel bracket can be more difficult to treat and often requires rest from exercise for several weeks. Sometimes a cortisone syringe can help.
If you have a lot of pain, you can try non-prescription drugs that have both anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, so-called NSAIDs or cox inhibitors, but if you have not gotten better within a couple of weeks, you can contact your health care provider. You may need surgery if the trouble does not go away by itself. Sometimes, but it is unusual, the mucus sac can become infected. Then it hurts intensely and you can get a fever. Then you may need to be treated with antibiotics.
Problems with the heel cushion
If you have trouble with the heel cushion, which sits under the heel, it usually hurts and under the heel as you walk.
The heel cushion gets stiffer the older you get. A rigid heel cushion does not cushion as well and then the load on the heel increases. You get hurt easier. Those who are overweight or have diabetes can also get a firmer health pillow.
You can relieve and get rid of the hassles by using good shoes with posts that relieve the bad area and help to cushion as you go. The trouble can sometimes last for a long time. Then you can try other forms of exercise and, for example, exchange long walks for swimming and cycling.
Stretch marks
A tendon can go off, in whole or in part, if it is subjected to a sudden and heavy load. When the heel breaks off near the heel, you suddenly get a lot of pain on the back of the lower leg above the heel. This usually happens in connection with any sporting activity.
Once your health has gone completely you may need surgery if you are young or if you are sports. After the operation, you will have plaster or other support bandages for up to eight weeks. After the age of fifty, it is quite common for you not to be operated on, but only to be plastered. For most people over the age of 50, the results of plaster are as good as surgery. After a health burst when the tendon is completely gone, you usually need crutches for a couple of months. Then long-term physical therapy is often required for you to recover well.
Haglund’s disease
A permanent lump may form on the back of the heel if the inflammation in the mucus becomes prolonged. This is sometimes called Haglund’s disease or Haglund’s heel and is more common in young women than in men. Anyone who has an outstanding heel from the beginning is at greater risk of having an inconvenience.
The treatment is to try to adjust the shoes that press on the swollen area or change shoes. In exceptional cases, you may need surgery if this does not help.
stress fracture
A stress fracture, or fatigue fracture as it is also called, means you get a crack in the skeleton because the skeleton has been strained too hard for a long time. A stress fracture in the heel is most common in runners and hard-working youth.
If you have had a stress fracture it hurts when you walk and stand on the heel and feel sore when you touch the area. You may also become swollen. The pain can come both abruptly and sneakily, and it can sometimes be very difficult to distinguish a stress fracture from a health-spore disorder or a problem with the health pillow.
You usually have to forgo physical activity that strains your heel for months if you have a stress fracture. You need to rest your foot for the skeleton to heal and sometimes you need crutches as extra relief. You may gradually increase the load afterward.
It is also important that you look over your running shoes. For example, it may be good to use individually adapted footbeds in the shoes that relieve the heel. You should also try to find out what the underlying cause of the crime was so that you can do something about it. For example, you may need to change your training and exercise in a different way.
tarsal tunnel syndrome
On the inside of the ankle is a nerve that in some cases can get caught. It is unusual for this to happen, but if the nerve gets jammed it can hurt and the heel may fall on the inside of the foot. An operation can relieve pressure on the nerve.
Treatment of heel pain
In most cases, heel pain is not a symptom of any serious illness. Usually, the trouble goes away by itself, although it can take time.
The treatment that is sometimes needed when you have heel pain depends on the cause of your problems. Often it is enough that you look over the shoes you wear and maybe adjust or change your workout. Sometimes you need physical therapy, special shoes or posts. You may also need surgery to get rid of the problems.
The trouble with your heels can be long-lasting and so you should address the problems as early as possible and try to do something about them.
If the inconvenience is because you have an underlying illness, you will primarily need treatment for that disease. This may be the case, for example, if you have the joint disease or rheumatic disease.
Good shoes
Many problems with heels may have to do with bad shoes. And even if it is not the shoes that are the cause, bad shoes can make the problem worse.
A good shoe should be stable, cushioning, reasonably spacious and have a sturdy sole without heels. You can try for yourself if the sole is sturdy by grasping the shoe with one hand over the heel and the other over the toes and twisting the shoe like a scrub. A sturdy sole can hardly be turned at all. If you try to fold the sole, it should fold in the front, not in the middle.
Relieve the area that hurts
You can try using shock-absorbing or relief posts that are available in well-stocked shoe stores, pharmacies and sporting goods stores. Unless good shoes and shock absorbing inserts help, you may need personally designed inserts, called footbeds, in the shoes. They are done by an orthopedic engineer. You can consult your doctor or physiotherapist if you need help getting in touch with an orthopedic technician or orthopedic engineer.
Reduce the load
Your heels are subjected to heavy loads as you run and walk. Therefore, it is often necessary that you reduce or change your physical activities during a period in order for the disorders to heal. This is especially true if the inconvenience is caused by overload. Sometimes you may also need to rest.
If you have an overweight it is also good to try to lose weight to reduce the load on the heel.
You may need to change your training style
You can change your physical activities if you exercise and want to stay active when you need to reduce the load at the same time. For example, you can try running or walking, but do it at shorter distances and at a slower pace.
You can also try cycling and swimming. Cycling can be good both if you have pain under the heel, and if you have problems with the heels. You can cycle on low loads, that is on low gear and avoid slopes where you have to take in.
Physiotherapy
Physical therapy is often an important treatment of heel pain if you have problems with the tendons in the foot.
Physical therapy is about training the body so that it becomes stronger and more agile and can often reduce and alleviate health problems. You will be assisted by the physiotherapist to set up a training program that is adapted to the injury you are looking for. You get exercises that you can do at home or at a gym.
Anti-inflammatory drugs
If the pain is due to inflammation, you can try drugs that have both an anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect, so-called NSAIDs or cox inhibitors. Examples of NSAIDs are drugs containing ibuprofen and naproxen.
One disadvantage of NSAIDs is that they can irritate the gastric mucosa. Contact your doctor if you experience any problems while taking these medicines.
You who are older should not use NSAIDs as the risk of side effects increases with age. The risk of stomach ulcers and bleeding, as well as heart failure and kidney failure, is great at higher ages.
Operation
You may sometimes need surgery if nothing else helps. Health surgeries are often performed as day surgery, which means that you come to the hospital, are operated on and are allowed to return home the same day.
Influence and participate in your care
You can seek care at any medical center or open specialist clinic you want throughout the country.
In order for you to be involved in your care and treatment of heel pain, it is important that you understand the information you receive from the healthcare staff.