There are lots of things going on in your seemingly simple feet and ankles. The twenty-six bones present in the area, the heel is the largest one. Heel pain is a typical result of overusing the body part, or it might result from injuries. The pain itself might range from being anywhere from mild to disabling. When you first experience heel pain is to try out home remedies. If that doesn’t work, you should consult healthcare professionals for advice on the best choice for you among the various available health options, which the article will discuss in a bit. But let’s briefly touch upon the home remedies for heel pain first.
Home Remedies For Heel Pain
You can remedy mild heel pain right at home by opting for one or a combination of the following methods:
Rest
You will often find heel pain to subside by merely giving it adequate rest. Avoid standing for significant periods or running when you experience pain. Another thing to try out is massage. However, you need the best foot massagers for this to work. Avoid walking on hard surfaces and generally steer clear from any activity that might cause stress to your heels.
Ice-pack
Create an ice pack by wrapping ice with a cloth and keep the pick on your help for about fifteen minutes. Ensure that you don’t apply the ice pack on your skin directly.
Footwear
Remember to wear only well-fitting shoes, not only for heel issues but as a general best practice. Make sure that your shoes are well supported. This last aspect matters even more for athletes.
Use Foot Supports
Using heel cups and wedges can relieve the symptoms.
Medical Treatment For Heel Pain
In case the home remedies mentioned above do not do the trick for your heel pain, you should seek medical help. The large majority of people show signs of recovery within a few months of conservative therapies for heel pain. The various options open to you in such cases are as follows:
- You can reduce the swelling and pain of your heels by taking NSAIDs or Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
- If NSAIDs prove to be ineffective, doctors may fall back on Corticosteroid injections. However, caution is a keyword while using these medical options as prolonged use of such substances may come with serious side effects.
- Physiotherapy might help too in the stretching of the plantar fascia muscles as well as the Achilles tendon. It helps to make your lower leg muscles stronger and helps make the heel and ankle stable.
- You can also get relief by supporting the foot bottom better by using athletic taping.
- According to the professionals at Ceda Orthopedic Group, you can try assistive or orthotic devices along with insoles for better support and pain management.
- Doctors may also turn to extracorporeal shock wave therapy to stimulate the healing process and encourage the same. The affected area is exposed to sound waves in this procedure. However, doctors prefer to use it only when the patient is not responding to conventional treatment.
- The last option open to your doctor, if everything else fails, is surgery. In such an invasive procedure, the surgeon will usually remove the plantar fascia from the heel bone. It comes with the potential risk of making the foot arches weak.
Preventing Heel Pain
As we all know, it is a far better option to prevent a malady than to seek a cure once it has set in. You can avoid pain in your heel by cutting down on the stress the heel experiences. The following tips should help you with the same:
- Always wearing shoes while on hard ground and making it a point to avoid going barefoot.
- Ensuring that you do not become overweight or obese and thereby stress your heels further.
- Use footwear with heel materials designed to absorb a part of the stress or insert heel pads to your footwear.
- Wear only correctly fitting shoes whose heels or soles have not worn down.
- Don’t wear footwear that triggers pain in your heels.
- Try to find a place to sit and give your feet some rest rather than remain standing if you have often experienced heel pain.
- Remember to do warm-up exercises before doing physical activities that stress your heels significantly.
- Wear specific shoes meant for particular physical tasks.
Suppose you try out the home remedies that we mentioned right at the start, and it fails to bring you relief from the heel pain you have been experiencing. In that case, you should consult a medical professional. The specific outcome and how fast it depends a lot on the particular factor causing your heel pain. However, most patients respond well to conservative therapy without the need for surgical intervention. Less than 5% of all sufferers need the latter. The last thing is to avoid strenuous physical exercises till the heel pain issue has been sorted out completely. Hope you heal fast!