Hello and welcome to our first blog entry! Today, Dr. Noah Levine will be discussing one of the major problems that we see in our offices: heel pain. Patients of all ages, genders and size can experience heel pain. Usually patients come into our office once they can no longer bear the pain from everyday walking or just from standing long hours at work. Heel pain can be easily resolved with stretching exercises as well as a variety of other conservative treatment measures. Surgery, while an option, is rarely necessary in treating acute heel pain.
The human species is bipedal meaning that we ambulate (or walk) on two feet. More importantly, the human foot is designed to walk on uneven terrain. With the advancement of civilization and the development of hard pavement, tile and sidewalks, it was also necessary to develop shoes, which not only protect our feet, but also to bring the ground up to the foot. We will be discussing the design of shoe gear in a later blog.
Our feet are meant to bear the weight of our bodies – to an extent. Additionally, we are meant to walk on our feet daily because a number of problems can arise when we are sedentary for long periods of time. That being said, our feet are made to withstand the load that we put them through each day as long as we do not over exert ourselves and wear the appropriate shoes for each situation.
It is said that every mile a person walks puts an average of 60 tons of stress on each foot. Too much stress can push your feet to their limits and heel pain may result as a problem. Adding recreational activities such as sports can exacerbate the problem even further. A sore heel will usually get better on its own if you give it enough rest. However, many people try to ignore the early signs of heel pain and keep on doing the activities that caused it (or may be one of the many causes).
Stay tuned to our later blog entries where we will not only be discussing various treatments for heel pain, but also various stories and testimonials from others who have experienced heel pain in their day to day lives.
