Health blog Category: foot
Foot and Ankle Injuries Commonly Seen
The foot/ankle is a joint in the body that is made up of a multitude of different structures and tissues that can each be injured in many different ways. Primary structures in the ankle include bone, ligaments, muscles, tendons, and fascia.
There are many injuries that can occur to these structures, but most common include:
- Ankle sprains
- An ankle sprain is an injury to the ligaments in the ankle.
- Sprains are classified in “grades” (1-3) which describes the severity of the sprain.
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 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 blogSolving Foot and Ankle Problems
Foot and ankle conditions are very common for every age group. Even if it’s just general discomfort, foot and ankle conditions cause a lot of problems with daily, functional activities. The most frequent complaint we see in the clinic is pain at the ankle joint that can radiate up into the leg or down into the heel. This symptom causes difficulty walking or standing for a prolonged period of time. It can also create trouble going from a seated position to a standing one without pain.
What Happens When Foot and Ankle Problems are Not Taken Care Of?
Read full blogIs Standing On One Foot Difficult?
Have you ever experienced a sharp pain in the bottom of your foot when you take your first few steps in the morning? Does your ankle feel unstable or painful when you’re walking or running? Do you have difficulty balancing on one foot without holding onto something for support?
These are all signs of common foot and ankle conditions that we often treat in physical therapy. Although there are many contributing factors leading to the aforementioned symptoms, here is a breakdown of the most frequent causes of foot and ankle pain as well as resulting ankle instability.