Question 1: “What is Heel Pain?” “What is Heel Pain” and “What are the main symptoms of Heel Pain”

Heel pain is a general term for a large group of diseases that can cause pain around the heel.

Heel pain is more common in middle-aged and elderly people. He has a history of heel trauma, walks too much, usually does not exercise much, and suddenly exercises a lot in a short period. It is common for obese people, pregnant women, and athletes. In the United States, about 10% of the population will suffer from heel pain during their lifetime, and more than two million people seek medical attention each year. In China, heel pain is one of the most common diseases in foot and ankle surgery clinics. Among adults, The incidence is about 11-15%.

The typical performance of most patients with heel pain is that after a rest, the tingling sensation is more obvious when the heels are just stepped on the ground, and the symptoms are relieved after a short walk. If they walk more or work for a day, they start again. It hurts. Simplify the pain pattern too? It hurts when it falls on the ground taking a few steps to relieve it-it hurts after walking too much. If you or your family have had similar experiences, this is likely the disease.

Question 2: “Why do I have heel pain?” “What is the cause of heel pain?” “My heel has not been injured, how can I have heel pain?”

The occurrence of calcaneal pain is currently generally believed to have the following four types of causes in the orthopedics community.

Reason 1. Plantar fasciitis

Let’s first take a look at what is the plantar fascia.

The white stripes are the tendons and fascia, the one located on the sole is the plantar fascia, and the red part is the diseased part of the plantar fascia. The so-called plantar fasciitis means that this fascia becomes inflamed at the point of the heel. It is not all due to inflammation, but more often due to the tiny tears in the fascia caused by repeated strain and degeneration.

When we lift the heel while walking, the forefoot is in contact with the ground and the weight is fixed, the back heel is lifted, and the plantar fascia is stretched. It takes a long time and how many steps we have to walk every day. Such a large number of repeated stretches gradually lead to this. Lesions of the fascia.

The painful location of plantar fasciitis is generally slightly inside the bottom of the heel, and it is often painful to press, and there are fixed tender points under the heel.

So, you can imagine that if you are heavier, or walk a lot, or are soldiers/athletes in long-term high-intensity training, or pregnant women gain weight in a short period, or if you don’t do much exercise, you can suddenly increase the amount of exercise. Lead to microscopic tears of the plantar fascia and accumulation of strain, leading to tendinopathy and inflammation.

Almost all patients with plantar fasciitis have experience heel pain when getting out of bed in the morning.

Reason 2: Pericalcaneal nerve compression

This term is very academic. In layman’s terms, when the nerve passes around the calcaneus, it is “strangled” by the tendons, ligaments, bones, bone spurs, fat around the calcaneus, or the plantar fascia that is edema due to inflammation. Nerves are very fragile. As long as you get stuck on it and don’t make it comfortable, it will immediately make you uncomfortable. The main manifestation is pain or numbness, and some will radiate to the soles of the feet. Some patients often show pain at night.

Reason 3. Heel pad disease

The heel pad is the fibrous fat pad under the calcaneus.

This fiber fat pad is usually a small heel insole. It plays a role in absorbing shock, damping, and cushioning every time we walk, run and jump. But with the increase of age and overwork, the internal structure of this small cushion is damaged. This is also very easy to understand, you buy the best insoles, they will wear out after a long time, especially the insoles under the forefoot and heel are the first to wear out. This fat pad is also worn out. At this time, there will be pain symptoms when the feet step on the ground.

(To be continued…)