Choosing A Healthier Life

Try These Treatments To Help Your Chronic Foot Pain

If you have heel or foot pain frequently, you may try to push through and go about your usual activities. While foot pain is something that's often not taken seriously, pain is a signal that something is wrong. The longer you ignore the pain, the longer it takes for your foot to heal, and you can cause further damage by stressing your foot. What's worse is the pain can interfere with your enjoyment of life, especially if the pain is in both of your feet. A podiatrist will diagnose your pain and treat it so your condition improves. Here are some treatments that might help your foot or heel pain.

Elevate And Rest Your Feet

Pain is often caused by injuries to the tendons or fascia in your feet. As a result of repetitive stress or an injury, the tissues may become inflamed, tear, or develop scars. Resting your feet gives the tissues a chance to heal and elevating them helps reduce swelling. Sometimes, resting can make the pain worse. In the case of plantar fasciitis, the heel pain is usually worse after you've been resting and then clears up after you've been walking. This makes it difficult to know how to treat your foot pain, and that's why you should get advice from a podiatrist.

With the case of fasciitis, your podiatrist might recommend you wear a soft boot or splint that holds your foot in a stretched position while you rest or sleep. That way your foot gets the rest it needs and the pain won't be as bad once you start walking again.

Wear The Right Shoe Inserts

Once you know the cause of your foot pain, you can buy shoe inserts off the shelf that might help. Your podiatrist might recommend the right kind to buy or the doctor may give you custom inserts for your foot condition. It's important to wear the right insert or you can make your foot pain worse. Some causes of pain respond better to padding while others need stiff support. You might need to support your arches, elevate a heel, or pad and straighten a toe. While shoe inserts can often be a big help, your podiatrist might also advise you to buy a particular type of shoe that will assist healing of your injury.

Try Medical Treatments

Your podiatrist may recommend medical treatments for your foot pain. Anti-inflammatory injections are sometimes given to reduce swelling and pain. Surgery is another option for severe cases that don't respond to other treatments. Ultrasound therapy might also be given. In addition, doing the right exercises daily might help your foot recover more quickly.

Foot pain is common and not always a serious problem, but when it doesn't go away and if it interferes with your ability to stay active or work, then you should see a podiatrist for treatments to stop your pain and help your foot heal. It often takes a long time for foot injuries to heal so the sooner you seek treatment, the quicker you'll get relief from your pain.


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