Is Foot Pain Making You Cringe?The Most Common Causes of Foot Problems & Foot Pain are:
The Foot The foot is an amazing structure that literally carries the body's weight and helps to balance it. Twenty-four of its 26 bones form its two arches: the longitudinal and the transverse arches. These arches run the length and the width of the foot. The foot is completed by the toes on one of its sides, and on the other by the ankle. The toes have important balancing functions in tandem with the foot. The ankle joins the foot to the lower leg. All the bones of the foot connect to each other by ligaments, which are fibrous tissue. The other support is the muscles and the plantar fascia, a sinewy and thought tissue. Fat pads help with weight-bearing and shock absorption. The foot's internal muscles originate and insert in its own structure; its external muscles originate in the lower leg and attach in various places on the bones of the foot. Foot Pain Foot pain, either acute or chronic, is a signal that there is something wrong. It is either due to improper interaction of its internal structures or to how the foot is interacting with the leg, with shoes, and with other external influences. Where and how the pain occurs usually provide more information as to what is causing the pain. Normal movement may not be possible due to the pain. That of course, occurs because the body reacts to this pain by changing the way it moves or functions in order to relieve it. Just be aware that when body mechanics change that change may actually worsen the condition and eventually cause chronic pain. Chronic pain in the foot often occurs in a specific area and could be affected by movement and putting weight on the foot. That in turn may affect the way you walk. Some common conditions include heel pain, metatarsal tunnel, hammer toes. Foot pain has a range from mild to severe. Prevention is clearly better than having to deal with any pain at all. Paying attention to the pain and getting foot pain relief as soon as possible is important. If your pain is at a point at which it hinders your normal life activities, seek immediate professional help and consider the natural ways to relieve foot pain here. Use good judgement and common sense.
An Ounce of Prevention I believe that we are at a crossroads in the healing sciences and that preventive medicine is the wave of the future. There are solid good reasons for this. As baby boomers, we are in a vibrant, vital phase of our lives much, much longer than our parents were. We have a thirst for a good, full and well-functioning body and mind. We are active and want to remain that way. And we want to feel and look younger than our actual age. We also want our children to know all the things we are learning just now about good health and a fulfilling life. As our journey into what used to be retirement - and for our grandparents and parents that often meant dying shortly after retiring - begins, we now begin to understand that our health is truly our responsibility. The current healthcare system and industry in the United States is less than ideal: it is expensive, difficult to navigate, sometimes inaccessible, and based on a 'treat it when it's diagnosed' approach. Although health care providers now tout themselves as practitioners of preventive medicine, the truth is that what is called 'preventive' is really early detection of a condition or disease. In that spirit a friend of mine, who works for a major corporation in a high position, recently told me that his health plan now includes preventive care. When I asked him what that meant, he told me about all the early detection tests -such as for breast cancer and prostate cancer - that he could think of. Please know that these tests are about early detection only. Yes, some health plans now include massage and acupuncture and that is wonderful. However, true prevention starts with naturally incorporating the things that are good for us from childhood on. Re-learning how to feed ourselves, to sleep well, to work well, to exercise regularly, to drink healthful water and so on are true prevention. Interestingly enough, even for those of us who did not learn these things as children and some of us who suffer from diseases and chronic pain, these preventive measures can and often do allow our bodies to heal. Some conditions may disappear entirely. Read here why it is so important to teach your children well... about your health and theirs. As you get further into this website, you will see and read testimonials from people of all backgrounds, and see and hear how easy it is to bring the body back into balance. And to enjoy a life free of chronic pain and dis-ease. Acute or chronic foot pain can be debilitating, and can be eased immeasurably with measures such as the ones we'll get into here. They are natural and easy to integrate into your life, and they will not interfere with conventional allopathic treatments. Those, however, you may not even need anymore. Let's get started and may you never know the ailments, diseases, and pain you prevent!
The conventional approach toward foot pain is first to diagnose. That means when you see your podiatrist (foot doctor), she or he will physically and visually examine your feet and do resistance tests by holding or moving your feet and ankles against resistance. The doctor will likely also observe how you are walking and running. Both the bones, by way of scans, x-rays, and MRIs, and the nerves of the feet will be tested. This of course, makes perfect sense in order to determine whether the foot pain has a local cause and what it is, or whether it stems from another injury in the body. It may even be a manifestation of a systemic condition, as in diabetic foot pain pain for example. Once diagnosed, the conventional treatment for foot pain may include all of the following: Go home and rest the foot, elevate it, apply compression and ice. In addition, take an over-the-counter medication, such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) to ease the pain. Or to address both pain and inflammation, use non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, such as aspirin,ibuprofen, or naproxen response. Apply foot and ankle supports. Get some non-prescription orthotics to help your feet stay aligned and functional. Wear only comfortably fitting shoes and possibly bid adieu to high heels and other tight fitting shoes. Replace tennis shoes regularly - at least every 6 months as their soles loose their elastic properties in that time. Exercise your foot muscles to strengthen them and increase their flexibility. This also helps with stability. Surgery Any and all of these approaches may be prescribed. For many foot pain sufferers this often means taking these measures over long periods of time, sometimes many years. If there are any drugs involved, even if they are over-the-counter varieties, these drugs have negative effects on the body. Learn more about how drugs affect the body here. Bandages and supports tend to get quite uncomfortable over time as well. Surgery, a drastic measure no matter which part of the body it is performed on, is invasive and often leaves the body different than before. It, too, has side effects. For many people surgeries can bring on other issues. Therefore, aside from the often astronomical cost, surgeries ought to be a last resort. What if that way of caring for yourself and the pain you experience also had other positive effects on the body? What if this approach brought the body into the balanced state in which it can heal itself? And what if the investment is mimimal as compared to regular health care? And remember to subscribe to our E-zine here... Home Page Solutions Resources
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