How Can Physical Therapy Help Relieve Heel Pain
Heel pain is a very common foot complaint. It may involve injury to the heel bone, fat pad, ligaments, tendons or muscles. A pinched nerve in your lower back can also be a reason for heel pain. To ensure an accurate diagnosis and subsequent treatment, it is important to have your heel pain thoroughly assessed.
Who can suffer from heel pain?
Almost anyone can suffer from heel pain, however certain age groups seem to be at higher risk of developing heel pain, including:
- Children aged between 8 and 13 years
- Active people – eg: who are into running sports
- People who stand for long periods of time
- People who are very overweight
- Middle aged men and women
- Pregnant women
What are the common causes of heel pain?
Some of the many causes of heel pain can include:
- Obesity
- Heel trauma – eg: stress fracture
- Recent changes in exercise program
- Abnormal walking style (such as rolling the feet inwards)
- Health disorders, including diabetes and arthritis
- Bursitis (inflammation of a bursa)
- Ill-lifting shoes – eg: narrow toe, worn out shoes
- Standing, running or jumping on hard surfaces
What are the symptoms of heel pain?
If you’re unsure of the cause of your heel pain, get in touch with our professional physiotherapists. They will assess and evaluate your medical history along with physical tests through which they will be able to examine the cause and symptoms.
Some common symptoms include:
- Heel pain that persists beyond a few days
- Swelling or discoloration of the heel
- Inability to walk comfortably
- Heel pain that occurs at night or while resting
Can physiotherapy help relieve heel pain?
Most heel pain is caused by a combination of poor biomechanics, or muscle weakness or tightness. However, the best part is that heel pain can be effectively managed once the underlying cause is identified.
Most heel pain can be successfully treated through:
- pain and pressure relief physiotherapy techniques
- lower limb muscle strengthening
- balance exercises and proprioceptive to stimulate your foot’s intrinsic muscles
- biomechanical correction – eg: orthotics, taping, foot posture exercises
- muscle stretches and massage
If you feel that your sports training schedule or footwear is causing your heel to pain, then it’s important that you seek professional advice of our sports physiotherapist, to outline a recovery plan by diagnosing the exact cause of the heel pain.
With accurate assessment and early treatment, most heel pain injuries respond extremely quickly to physiotherapy allowing you to quickly resume pain-free and normal activities. If you’ve been experiencing heel pain and have also tried many treatment methods, don’t fret, contact our expert physiotherapists in Edmonton, today!
