Podiatry in Tampa: Heel Pain!

Heel pain, additionally known as plantar fasciitis or heel spurs, is among the most common foot ailments handled in a podiatrists office. In our fast-paced lives, the aching heel has develop into an epidemic. This is as a result of the combination of lengthy work days, obesity and exercise. Persons are additionally gaining weight and losing their muscle energy and flexibility. Those are all contributing factors to heel pain. Typical signs consist of deep pain while getting out of bed in the morning and after sitting. Most folks additionally experience pain toward the end of the day or the day after exercise/strenuous activity. Others describe their pain as radiating or sharp shooting pain which most probably involves a nerve in the heel area. A major ligament-like structure referred to as the plantar fascia is partially liable for supporting the foot arch and for absorbing shock when walking. The fascia extends from the heel to the ball of the foot. The fascia is a flat band identical in makeup to a ligament. For quite a lot of reasons, the fascia weakens and causes the arch to fall, therefore creating a lower arch or “flat foot”. Consequently, there is excessive stretch or tension on the fascial band which results in inflammation or swelling and continuously small tears of this band. With repeated pressure of the fascia at the heel bone or calcaneus, a spur or bone enlargement develops. That is the body’s method of responding to stress. While a tissue is stressed, the body develops more of that tissue, in this case bone. Along with the swelling of the fascia, there is continuously a related inflammation, entrapment or enlargement of nerves across the heel. It has been shown that those nerves are a prominent source of the pain experienced with plantar fasciitis. So what exactly causes the pain in the heel? It is an aggregate of swelling of the fascia and the nerves of the heel. The heel spur itself causes no pain even though on x-ray it looks pointed and appears as a piercing object. If truth be told, many people have fasciitis without the spur. Dr. Marc Katz, a Tampa Podiatrist, notes that in his 22 years of practice he rarely removed the bone spur. He also said that over the past 10 years he has used advanced treatments to heal the pain and more recently has used a cutting edge tretament referred to as Cryosurgery or CryOzone plus.