Do you have chronic foot or ankle pain? Or, has it started recently? For everything you need to know about foot and ankle pain, read through the information given below.
External Injury
There are various reasons for foot and ankle pain, but external injury is the most prominent cause.
Foot and ankle—both these structures are composed of soft and hard tissues. Thus, external injury could be either a soft tissue injury or otherwise related to the bones.
If you have broken your foot bone because of anything like a road accident, it will cause a lot of pain and foot joint inflammation. Sometimes, hard external traumas can cause ankle and foot fractures and dislocations.
Once you have broken your foot, don’t move it too much. Keep the affected area immobile. Seek ambulance services as soon as possible. If you have come home right after a traumatising incident, give rest to the injured foot.
Follow elevation and ice compression techniques to reduce swelling and pain to a certain extent.
If you have injured your foot and ankle while playing sports, visit the following link to meet with the best doctor: best sports injury doctor in Delhi.
Overuse
Overuse is the most common thing among millions of people across the globe. People have worked more than their capacity to tolerate and it has caused stress fractures.
This could be a valid reason if your foot and ankle are aching too much. This can happen to you if you have walked on foot more than usual. Stress fractures or straining your body part isn’t a big deal.
It just needs sufficient rest before the pain withers away and everything goes back to normal. Overuse is responsible for muscle strain, sprain and stress fractures.
This category also includes overexercise. When people over-exercise during a period, it has a wrecking effect. Their entire body gets strained and it starts aching.
So, overuse is also the reason for foot and ankle pain.
Arthritis
Ageing is a natural part of living. As we age, our entire body goes through irreversible degenerative changes. Arthritis is one such age-related problem though external traumas or medical conditions can also cause it.
Arthritis means the inflammation of a joint. ‘Arthri’ means a joint and ‘Tis’ implies inflammation. Osteoarthritis is a specific age-related disorder that happens to weight-bearing joints.
The main cause of this condition is that with time soft protective cushion-type parts found in joints wear down causing joint bones to rub against each other and cause pain and stiffness.
Medically, this soft protective part is called cartilage.
So, arthritic conditions are also responsible for foot and ankle pain.
Plantar Fasciitis
This condition gives you heel pain in your foot. In your feet, there is a connective tissue, more of a band or strip-like structure, that connects the heel bone to the toes; this tissue is called plantar fascia. When this part gets inflamed, it gives rise to Plantar Fasciitis.
Injuries and internal conditions like rheumatoid arthritis can cause this inflammation.
This is a soft-tissue injury, not related to the bone parts of your foot and ankle. Thus, to avoid such injuries, make sure you take enough calcium, vitamin D, antioxidants and protein. Besides, exercise is important as well.
Tendonitis
Foot and ankle like any other joint also contain tendons. These are soft bands of tissue offering connectivity from muscles to bones. When a tendon gets inflamed, it is known as tendonitis.
Tendonitis could also be a symptom of underlying medical conditions. If you have this tendon inflammation after straining or spraining your foot, ensure adequate rest and use ice compressions to reduce pain, swelling and other inflammatory problems.
Ice has a good numbing and constrictive effect on blood vessels that curtails the flow of inflammation-inducing agents to the injured tendon via blood flow and you don’t have to go through too much swelling, redness and pain.
Flat Feet or High Arches
Our feet have arches, which are usually found between the heel and toes. When this arch is too high than usual, it is called a high arch or medically known as cavus foot deformity.
Once you have developed this condition if it is not congenital or by birth, you can experience foot and ankle pain. Besides, a flat foot is where the arch is either very low or non-existent.
Both these foot arch-related abnormalities can cause foot and ankle pain.
Nerve Compression
The human body is a very complex mechanism that is supported by the concomitant workings of various systems like digestive, circulatory, respiratory, etc. One such system is the nervous system.
The basic unit of the nervous system is a neuron. Various neurons form a network throughout the human body and the primary work of this network is to register sensual information and send it to the brain so you can behave appropriately.
When any part of this neurological network gets pressurised, it can cause radiating pain that starts from one place and travels somewhere else like down the affected leg or arm. The condition of pressurised nerves is known as pitched nerves or nerve compression.
If the tibial nerve is compressed, it causes foot pain; medically, the condition is called tarsal tunnel syndrome.
In addition, your foot may also be painful because of the stenosis of the lumbar spine. This is so because spinal stenosis always causes nerve compression.
Infections
Furthermore, cellulitis, osteomyelitis, athlete’s foot and plantar warts are some of the examples of infections that can cause foot and ankle pain.
Cellulitis is a bacterial skin infection. If it happens to your foot, you will have to experience all the typical symptoms of inflammation like pain, swelling, redness, etc. Osteomyelitis is a bone infection where bone inflammation occurs and causes bone pain.
The athlete’s foot is another infection that is caused by fungus. This condition can also be the reason why your feet are painful. Plantar warts are caused by human papillomavirus, in short, HPV.
If you don’t want to get HPV and thus plantar warts, you had better not go barefoot in a public place.
Conclusion
These are the major causes of foot and ankle pain. If it is due to strain or sprain, you just need to take enough rest and that is it.
The pain will go away as a result of the natural healing capacity of the human body. If this pain doesn’t go away and you want to consult with a doctor, consider the following link: foot and ankle specialist in Delhi.
