Pain in your heels or soles when you wake up is not the right way to start your day. Especially if this heel pain continues when you try to get up from a sitting position and walk. Pain in the back heel is experienced by many adults so it is considered normal to occur with age. Even so, persistent pain is not something that should be left without medical treatment.
Often associated with high uric acid, it turns out that there are other factors that can trigger pain in your heels. Pain can be caused by daily activities that require you to stand for a long time. If you often stand for several hours while riding public transportation, you may have experienced pain in the soles of your feet and heels.
Another cause is exercise. Even though it is good for health, some types of exercise, especially those that put excessive pressure on the heels, can cause pain in your feet. Not to mention if you use the wrong type of shoes for exercising. Usually, shoe soles that are too soft don't have a good ability to support the soles of your feet.
In addition, being overweight or obese can also cause heel pain. Because your feet are under extra pressure from your body, your heels will hurt when you stand, walk, and do other physical activities.
If you constantly experience heel pain that doesn't go away, you may have plantar fastitis , which is a disorder of the tissue that connects your heel to your toes. This network has the main function as a vibration damper, supporting the soles of the feet, and helping a person to walk. The amount of high-intensity pressure on your feet causes injury or damage to these tissues. This injury then triggers inflammation and makes you feel pain in your heel. Not only pain, you will also feel swelling in the part that hurts.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Even though the pain in the soles of the feet seems to go away gradually when you do activities, it's common for heel pain to reappear when you start the day. Therefore, proper treatment is needed so that the pain does not get worse.
Before treatment, of course, an examination of the painful heel is needed. Radiological examination is usually done to find out the cause of pain. At the EMC hospital, you can get radiological examination services on the heel using ultrasound, x-rays, x rays, and MRI.
If the diagnosis states that you have plantar fasciitis , there are several treatment services that can be performed. The doctor may suggest physiotherapy to stretch the tissue in the heel and strengthen the ankle and heel muscles. For this procedure, you will be given a band-aid, foot brace, or special shoe insoles to support the soles of your feet and spread the weight evenly over the feet.
If the back heel pain does not go away, the next step is corticosteroid injections. Corticosteroid injections can only temporarily reduce pain and are not recommended for long-term use.
For more chronic cases of plantar fasciitis , EMC hospitals provide Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) services. This therapy utilizes shock waves ( shockwaves ) and does not require an incision into the body ( non-invasive ). ESWT therapy is able to relieve pain, including pain due to plantar fasciitis which cannot be treated with other actions and therapies.
ESWT therapy is recommended because it has advantages over other therapies, namely:
- It is a non-invasive procedure and can be performed without anesthesia
- Reducing the occurrence of disease complications because there are almost no side effects caused
- Can cure pain that can not be cured by other conservative measures
- Fast duration of action (5-10 minutes) and fast recovery. Patients can return to activities in a short time.
- ESWT can react directly on nerve tissue which will relieve pain
For those of you who want to prevent heel aches and pains, there are several actions and lifestyles you can take, namely:
- Reduce the load on your feet by losing weight if you are obese
- Don't stand too long
- Immediately rest your feet if you feel pain
- Do stretches before exercising
- Wear comfortable and suitable shoes
That's what you can do to treat heel pain, especially from plantar fasciitis. Follow a healthy lifestyle as a preventative measure and don't wait until the pain gets worse before taking early treatment with a doctor. #LiveExcellently