Health blog Category: Foot and Ankle
Bunions
I remember being a kid and seeing my mom’s feet especially in the summer. She had this bump on the inside area of her big toe. She always said, “I hope you don’t have my feet when you grow up!” I always wondered why her bone stuck out like that. These “bumps” are called bunions.
What is a bunion?
A bunion is a foot deformity that occurs when the big toe bone shifts out of place. Your big toe begins to move inward towards the smaller toes, and as this occurs the bottom part of the big toe shifts outwards to form that “bump.” How does this happen? Sometimes it happens because of tight fitting shoes that are worn for a long time that has a narrow toe box. It can also occur because of other medical conditions such as arthritis and good ‘ole genetics!
Read full blogOur Heel; The Part of Our Foot We Forget
The heel, also known as the calcaneus, is located on the bottom of the foot directly below the ankle joint. The heel bone has many muscles and ligaments attached to it. When injuries or irritation occur to the attached muscles or ligaments, it can create pain in the heel. This pain can lead to many other additional issues in your daily life such as difficulty:
- Walking
- Jogging
- Running
- Working out
- standing
The pain can be described as follows:
- Tight
- Spasm
- Burning
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Dull
- Achy
- Sharp
Why does heel pain occur?
This pain can be caused by:
- Overuse of the calf and foot muscles
- Tight calf and foot muscles, or plantar fascia
- Weakness in ankle-supporting muscles
- Fractures to bone
- Inflammation of bursa (fluid filled sacs that provide protection)
- Neurological issues
Common Heel Pain Injuries
- Achilles Tendinitis: inflammation of the Achilles tendon due to overused or tight calf muscles
- Bursitis: inflammation of the bursa due to tight surrounding tissues/tendons or friction at the heel
- Plantar Fasciitis: inflammation of the connective tissue on the bottom of the foot
- Heel Spur: bony outgrowth at the heel due to tight muscles or strains/sprains
- Stress Fractures: tiny cracks in bone due to overuse and repetitive forces
Should you seek physical therapy?
Read full blogThese Musculoskeletal Injuries
Ankle sprains are some of the most common musculoskeletal injuries, with approximately 25,000 people spraining their ankle every day (1). An ankle sprain occurs usually when the ankle is forced into an extremely inverted or everted position, meaning rolling in or out respectively; rolling your ankle inwards being the most common type of sprain.
How do I know if I sprained my ankle?
Some common symptoms of an ankle sprain are:
- Pain or soreness when moving your ankle into the position in which you sprained it,
- Pain with walking
- Ankle stiffness
- Mild localized swelling and bruising along the outside of your foot/ankle.
Achilles Tears and Their Severity
What is the Achilles Tendon?
The Achilles tendon is the strongest and largest tendon in our bodies. It connects the calf muscle to your heel (at the back of your ankle and foot). It needs to be extremely strong and springy in order to help propel your body up and forward as well as absorb the shock from landing while running, jumping and even walking.
Achilles Tear vs. a Rupture
An Achilles tear means that the tendon is only damaged and still attached.
Read full blogFallen Arches & Foot Issues
Fallen arches are otherwise known as “flat feet”. Essentially, the area in the bottom of your foot where an arch should be is no longer there and has flattened, or is not as high as would be considered “normal”. This can be congenital, or something you were born with, but often times especially since we spend so much time in shoes and sitting that it can also be made worse by weakening of foot muscles.
Read full blogFoot and Arch Discomfort
Plantar Fasciitis is a fancy term for foot pain that is usually in your heel and/or arch of the foot that is caused by irritation of the connective tissue (plantar fascia is the specific name of that connective tissue) that help support the arch of your foot.
What are the symptoms?
As mentioned above, a person with plantar fasciitis will often have pain in the heel and/or arch of their foot.
Read full blogAnkle Weakness
Overall ankle weakness can lead to a number of injuries, not only with the ankle joint specifically but it can lead to injuries at other joints such as the knee and also down into the foot. Typical ankle sprains (also known as “rolling” your ankle) can occur if the muscles on the medial and lateral side of our ankles are weak.
Ankle weakness can also contribute to over-pronation of the foot which can lead to injuries such as plantar fasciitis.
Treating Plantar Fasciitis & Other Foot Problems
It’s common, no matter our age, to experience foot and ankle pain, or discomfort in our heels and arches. This discomfort and pain makes daily, functional activities such as standing, walking and using stairs difficult. A common injury we see is plantar Fasciitis.
Causes
Foot and ankle pain can stem from a number of factors.
Some common ones include:
- Poor footwear
- Weakness in the intrinsic foot muscles
- Poor foot anatomy such has a flat foot or high arches
- Chronic issues with lower back, hip, or the knee that causes pain down into the foot and ankle
Plantar Fasciitis
One particular foot condition treated here at Loudoun Sports Therapy Center is plantar fasciitis.
Read full blogThe Solution to Foot and Ankle Pain
Foot and ankle problems make daily, functional activities such as standing, walking and using stairs difficult. In addition to the daily functions mentioned above, it can also mean they have trouble going from a seated position to a standing one without pain. Even taking just a few steps can be painful due to muscle tightness and joint stiffness.
Plantar Fasciitis
One particular foot condition we treat is plantar fasciitis. To start, what is your plantar fascia?
Read full blogAnkle Instability
10,000 steps is the Center for Disease Control & Prevention recommended step count for a day. While we are all shooting to hit those 10,000 steps in 24 hours, it’s quite likely that one of us will stumble, miss a step/curb or trip.
Those missteps can be a result of:
- Wearing high heels
- Incorrectly sized shoes
- Inconsistent walking surfaces
- Or even something as simple as ankle instability.
People often make the comment “What did you even trip over?” when there actually wasn’t anything in their direct path that caused their misstep.
Read full blog
