| Foot pain briefly explained |
|
There is a plethora of foot pain. The two most common ones we see are plantar fasciitis and metatarsal pain (other associated problems we deal with are shin pain, ankle pain, knee and hip pain etc).
Plantar fasciitis is the most common ailment we can successfully treat which occurs in the heel and/or arch area. Pain pattern Despite its nicknames of “heel spur” and “policeman’s heel” the so-called spur does not cause the pain as very few cases of plantar fasciitis actually display a spur growth at the heel area. As a point of interest, it has been ascertained that around 20% of the population have heel spur growth but will never know it. Causes Its causes are many-fold and very individual but briefly we can look at faulty biomechanics (positioning and functioning) of the feet as the root problem. A too-high to too-low arch with feet either pronating (inward tilting) or supinating (outward deviation) causes the plantar aponeurosis to become rigid and pull at the heel and arch area causing mirco-tearing throughout the arch and heel insertion. This is understandable as the plantar aponeurosis is literally the “strut” holding the foot erect against the full weight of the body. This pulling force due to rigidity in the aponeorisis may also cause metatarsal symptoms as well as heel and arch pain. Poorly understood
Metatarsal pain
Like plantar fasciitis, metatarsal pain has many individual causes and our approach is to bring the entire foot under control in our own way and deal with the problem at its source. Early plantar fasciitis (“first flush”)
Therefore, an early case of plantar fasciitis should not be ignored and treatment of its root cause must be undertaken as early as possible. |
This whole process of cause is poorly understood. “Basic” plantar fasciitis symptoms such as early morning pain and heel soreness may be just recognised.
Almost all metatarsal pain is merely another “expression” of plantar fasciitis except that the torsional pull from the plantar aponeorosis is at the metatarsal end of the foot rather than the heel/arch areas. Pain to the metatarsal area generally falls into the categories of dropped metatarsal heads, Morton’s neuoromas, loss of fatty paddings and misalignment problems.
The vast majority of cases may have displayed an onset either weeks, months or years before and then returned in a far more aggressive way and to a state of permanence. This is know as “first flush”. This “first flush” appears as a short-lived episode and may seem to have been cured by cortisone or physical treatments when, in reality, it would have temporarily disappeared anyway. None of these treatments can clear plantar fasciitis as they simply do not treat the cause.