If you have pains in your heel in the morning when you get out of bed and take the first steps or after some physical exercise your heel hurts then keep reading – you may have found a condition that should be looked into further. Learn more here!
Pain in the heel is usually caused in the area (tissue) connecting your heel to your toes and is an inflammation of what’s called the plantar fascia. This condition has a name, the subject of this article, plantar fasciitis.
Because with overnight sleep the fascia tightens the pain is usually felt more in the morning or when getting up after rest. The pain felt has been characterized as burning or stabbing feelings in the heel. The pain usually declines as your foot limbers up from use. It may recur though after standing up for a long time or after sitting for a long time and standing up.
Surgery or other invasive treatments are not usually required to overcome these pains. There are also things you can proactively do to prevent the pain from plantar fasciitis.
While the pain from plantar fasciitis can develop suddenly, it usually develops over time gradually. Usually it only affects one foot at a time though, although sometimes both can be affected at the same time. You can feel a pain like a knife being stuck in the bottom of your foot that presents as a sharp pain in the bottom of your foot on its inside. Pain in the heel can occur when you stand on your tiptoes, while climbing stairs or in the morning after waking up as mentioned before. The pain may occur if you stand up for long periods in your job (or at an event). If shortly after finishing your exercises, you may feel the pain in your heel too. You may also observe slight swelling in your heel.
The plantar fascia is intended to act like a cushion as you walk; absorbing the shocks like a bowstring while it supports your arch. The tension can build up and make small tears in the fascia. If this stretching and tearing happens repetitively, the fascia becomes irritated and inflamed.
There are several directly linked possible causes of plantar fasciitis. An excess of physical activity such as runners doing marathons or other long running regimens can be a cause. If you are starting a new training program that is all of a sudden exerting more than usual jogging, walking or even stair climbing you can be triggering this. Other things that you have already been diagnosed with like arthritis and diabetes can be causing this. If your feet have some faulty conditions like being flat-footed, high arches or walking irregularly for some reason the uneven distribution of weight can exert this stretching and tearing of the fascia that we discussed earlier. Even wearing improper shoes can stimulate the pressures on the plantar fascia that can start the process of these pains in the heel because your Achilles tendon gets abused also leading to these types of pain.
There are many risk factors so educate yourself on them and try to get your plantar fascia protected and treated well so the pain in your heels won’t overwhelm you.
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