A heel spur is a bony growth of the heel bone that is shaped like a spike. Hence the common name for the malaise. In medicine, this disease is called plantar fasciitis .
According to statistics, heel spurs account for approximately 10% of all diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, today we will talk about the main symptoms, treatment and possible causes of heel spurs.
The most characteristic symptom of the disease is acute pain even with slight load in the heel area .
This pain is usually compared to that which occurs if you step on a sharp object (for example, a needle). Particularly burning pain is observed in the morning, or after a long rest. The pain also intensifies in the evening. If you do not pay attention to the symptom, the pain will intensify at any time of the day.
Another symptom of plantar fasciitis is a change in gait . The patient instinctively tries to free the heel area so as not to cause himself pain, this can greatly change his gait.
The X-ray image clearly shows a bone growth in the heel area.
In the vast majority of cases, plantar fasciitis occurs with a history of flat feet. This happens because with this disease the distribution of the load on the lower extremities is changed, and the tendons are stretched more than necessary. As a result, the feet are very easily injured when moving, after which inflammation and pain occur.
In older people, the ability of injuries to regenerate decreases, the blood supply to the extremities is disrupted, and the load on the foot is usually long-term. The last reason can even be considered as a prerequisite for the occupational disease of middle-aged teachers, hairdressers, workers at the machine - everyone who, due to their occupation, has to stand a lot.
Running, jumping, and team sports put stress on the foot and contribute to microtraumas, which subsequently lead to the formation of heel spurs.
Obesity also increases the stress on your legs when you walk. In addition, obese people are much more likely to get injured on uneven, rocky ground.
Plantar fasciitis can be caused by injuries to the heel bone, including chronic ones. A heel spur quickly forms against the background of diabetes, gout, arthritis, bursitis, and thrombophlebitis.
That, as they say, without comment. If beauty requires its sacrifices, then we wear pointed shoes, disproportionate heels, beautiful shoes that do not fit. And then... we pay.
Poor nutrition, serious lack of fluid, concomitant diseases - all this leads to the deposition of salts wherever possible.
Today there is a wide range of effective ways to treat the disease. The treatment is long-term and is carried out under the supervision of an orthopedic surgeon.
We will definitely talk about folk remedies for treating heel spurs and possible methods of treatment at home in the next article.
Well, as a primer, maclura oil extract has a good effect on heel spurs.
I’ve been suffering from heel spurs for a long time, the surgeon suggests surgical intervention, but I’m afraid, I’m one of those people in my work who “feed on their feet,” and I can’t get out of action for a long time, I have to resort to various alternative methods of treatment, which for some reason I bring only a temporary effect. And I want to get rid of this scourge once and for all.
The doctor told me that nothing would help with my spur, I just needed to have an operation.
To accurately decide on the operation, you need to see an x-ray. Folk remedies help in not very advanced cases of heel spurs.
All last summer I applied a burdock leaf to my heel at night, and the situation with the spur has improved significantly.
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On the website alter-zdrav.ru you will find many effective ways and methods of strengthening your own health that are accessible at home. We are considering treatment methods
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Heel pain can occur for various reasons. They are often the result of a wedge- or spike-shaped bone growth, which is popularly called a heel spur. It appears in both older and younger people. This is not a primary disease. It develops against the backdrop of an already existing problem.
The name of the disease does not mean that spurs grow on the heel. Damage occurs to the tendons, which are usually overgrown with calcium on top, so the change looks like a “spur” in appearance. The result is discomfort when walking. If the Achilles tendon and its bursa are affected, a person feels pain above the heel in the back of the leg. If the tendons of the plantar muscles are affected or inflamed, then the pain will be localized under the heel on the side of the sole.
A heel spur can be identified using an x-ray. But, unfortunately, only 3-5% of cases are detected so far.
The main symptom is severe pain in the heel area, which intensifies with weight bearing on the leg. At first, pain occurs periodically, and as the disease progresses, it torments the patient all day.
A slight increase in the heel area is also a symptom that a person has developed a heel spur.
Do not overload the foot. Avoid wearing high-heeled shoes if you have to walk or stand a lot. Shoes for heel spurs should be as comfortable as possible; the foot should not get tired in them.
If, however, heel spurs cannot be avoided, then you need to wear orthopedic insoles, which help relieve the load from the foot. You can insert a heel pad instead, but special insoles are more effective. They are also an excellent prevention of flat feet, which leads to the development of this disease.
The method of shock wave therapy for this disease was developed by Swiss doctors more than ten years ago. To date, this is the most effective treatment for heel spurs, which has a minimum of side effects, and its effectiveness is 85%.
The essence is the penetration of shock waves through soft tissue. Healthy cells are not affected, as they are protected by an elastic membrane. The wave acts on inflamed elements, loosening scar tissue and removing excess salts that have been deposited in tendons, muscles and ligaments. Using a wave shock, the device restores blood flow in the foot. Calcium salts and areas of fibrosis gradually dissolve.
Benefits of shock wave therapy:
Drug treatment for heel spurs is aimed at reducing pain and inflammation in the foot. The patient is prescribed Diclofenac, Brufen, Indomethacin, Flexen, etc. in tablets or suppositories. If these medications do not help, give 1-2 injections of corticosteroid hormones directly into the heel. At the same time, treatment is carried out for the disease that led to the development of heel spurs. If it is an infection, then a course of antibiotics is prescribed.
Laser treatment affects soft tissue. This method does not eliminate the spur itself, it improves blood circulation and, as a result, eliminates the inflammatory process and reduces pain. Massage for heel spurs also helps improve blood circulation in the foot.
Removing a heel spur is one of the drastic ways to get rid of the problem. Doctors knock down the heel spur with a chisel and remove the altered adjacent tissue.
Traditional treatment for heel spurs will be more effective if you drink flint water for 30 days.
Pine nut tincture normalizes metabolism well. You only need to crush 20 g of nuts and pour in 200 ml of vodka. Place in a dark, dry place for ten days. Drink two teaspoons of the medicine before meals three times a day.
Recently, not only older people, but also young people are faced with a disease such as plantar fasciitis. At the beginning of the last century, it was believed that heel spurs appear only after injury. An active lifestyle, moderate physical activity, combined with a lack of excess weight were the key to health. Of course, age-related changes made themselves felt, but this disease was not too common. Now, incorrect shoes, flat feet, excess weight and chronic diseases contribute to the early development of plantar fasciitis.
One of the most common causes of painful soft tissue inflammation in the heel area is improper foot placement. Because of this, there is an increased load on the back of the leg, the person’s weight is distributed unevenly. This contributes to excessive stretching of the tendons, which begin to be injured even when walking on uneven surfaces.
If you know that you have flat feet, then you need to take the prevention of plantar fasciitis seriously. After all, knowing the causes of this problem, you can try to avoid it: to do this, you need to wear the right shoes with orthopedic insoles, exercise moderately, watch your diet and do special exercises for your feet.
Metabolic disorders, which often occur with age, can cause heel spurs to develop in older people. The reasons for its occurrence lie in the fact that with age, the process of salt deposition becomes more intense, blood circulation in the tissues worsens, and ligaments lose their elasticity. Because of this, when the tendons are stressed, small tears appear, the soft tissues in these places become inflamed, and pain appears. The situation is aggravated by the fact that tissues in the body lose their ability to regenerate normally with age.
Another common cause is being overweight. It is because of this that the load on the legs increases significantly. Obese people are susceptible to microtraumas of the foot, which are not noticeable at first glance, but ultimately lead to the appearance of spurs on the heels. This reason is becoming more and more relevant, because the number of people suffering from obesity is increasing every year.
Despite the fact that one of the ways to prevent plantar fasciitis is physical activity, athletes also face this problem. But they have other reasons for its occurrence: excessive loads, sprains and various injuries.
Once you know what causes heel spurs, you can try to avoid this problem with lifestyle changes. Of course, if you have confirmed diseases that are associated with metabolic disorders, there have been injuries to the heel bone or problems with blood circulation, then you need to be extremely attentive to the body’s signals. If you experience the slightest discomfort, you should visit a doctor: he will not only focus your attention on preventive measures, but will also prescribe procedures to remove the inflammation that has arisen in the soft tissues.
Even if you are still young, do not play professional sports, and have never had an injury, you should not relax: there are a number of diseases in which the risk of heel spurs is quite high. Among them: metabolic disorders, deterioration of blood circulation in tissues, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis. Regardless of the reasons for this problem, if you have even a slight pain in the lump on your heel, this is a sufficient reason to immediately contact a surgeon or orthopedist.
In some cases, it is quite important to determine the cause of the disease. Sometimes this is the only way to convince the patient to change his lifestyle: for example, go on a diet, start wearing the right shoes, or stick to a daily routine. After all, even if the procedures help to quickly get rid of inflammation in the tissues, there is no guarantee that the pain will not return in a few years.
Modern medicine believes that heel spurs are formed as a result of the following reasons::
A heel spur is a bony growth that forms in the area of the heel bone. In this case, severe pain occurs in the leg, which interferes with walking and greatly reduces the person’s quality of life. Women suffer from this disease more often than men. If you ignore the symptoms of a spur and do not use modern treatment methods, the pain while walking will intensify, which will lead to motor limitations and the need for complex operations in the future.
The main causes of spurs on the heels:
A doctor can determine the causes of spur formation by analyzing the patient’s lifestyle. Most often, the pathology develops gradually, due to a combination of several unfavorable factors. But the basis of the disease is still a violation of metabolism and blood flow in the foot area. In ordinary life, few people pay attention to working out the lower sections of the legs. Even if people play sports, they don’t think about their heels and feet at all. As a result, blood stagnates here due to prolonged overexertion while walking or, conversely, monotonous activity.
A heel spur is characterized by severe pain in the heel area, which intensifies after sleep and lack of physical activity. Soft tissue swelling may also occur. Heel spur pain can vary in intensity. As a rule, they are burning, sharp, similar to a drill in the heel, giving no rest either day or night. While walking, the intensity of the pain may decrease, but in the evening the discomfort usually occurs again.
Gradually, patients limit leg movements, which leads to muscle atrophy and metabolic disorders. Not being physically active is a common mistake. Treatment of heel spurs necessarily includes special gymnastics. Without it, it is impossible to restore normal blood circulation and metabolism in the soft tissues of the foot. It is recommended to exercise at least 2-3 times a week. In this case, several exercises (usually associated with rotation of the foot) are recommended daily to maintain nutrition and blood flow in the tissues.
It is possible to say exactly how to treat a heel spur only after obtaining X-ray diagnostic data. Using X-rays, the doctor can make an accurate diagnosis, assess the degree of damage to hard and soft tissues, and select an effective comprehensive treatment regimen. In the acute period, you cannot do without painkillers and drug blockades with hormones. After eliminating the pain, they immediately begin to perform physical therapy, which helps to develop the joint of the sore leg, restore normal functional activity of the limbs, increase the rate of metabolism and blood movement through the vessels.
Since it takes several months to treat spurs on the foot, the main emphasis is on special gymnastics. Due to health problems and excess weight, people are often contraindicated for standard exercises, which can overload joints and lead to exacerbation of chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system, including osteochondrosis and arthritis.
An alternative to conventional gymnastics is the Quadro System. It gives an even load on the entire body, but at the same time allows you to increase the impact on certain areas of the body. You can carry out special gymnastics for the feet at your usual pace, which will relieve chronic pain and inflammation in just a few weeks of use. The quad center knows how to treat heel spurs and other common diseases - without surgery and excessive stress on the body.
The results of using the Quadro System will be noticeable after just a few workouts:
The simulator provides static tension even for small groups of muscles and ligaments, maintains high activity of blood circulation and metabolism, preventing destructive processes and inflammation from progressing.
Heel spurs can appear at any age, but most often the disease develops after 40 years. And it is necessary to engage in prevention in middle age, especially if you regularly expose your legs to increased stress. Women who constantly walk in high heels and wear narrow, uncomfortable shoes are at risk for the formation of spurs. This creates the preconditions for impaired blood circulation in the tissues and the progression of the degenerative process, which can provoke the formation of growths in the area of the heel bone tubercle.
Prevention of heel spurs includes:
The main method of prevention is dosed physical activity involving the foot. You can do gymnastics at home, including certain exercises in your daily exercises. But it is static loads that will be most effective. By practicing the Quadro System, you can carry out a comprehensive recovery of the body and at the same time regularly do certain exercises for the feet against spurs.
Quadro System Training Center can help you too.
Heel spur (HS) is a disease that is an overgrowth of bone tissue in the form of a beak-shaped or spine-shaped bone protrusion in the area of the tubercle of the heel bone. You can see what this disease looks like in the photo in the picture below.
The main cause of heel spurs is the physiological aspect of the disease. At a time when a person is in an upright position for a long time, approximately half of the total weight of his body is taken over by the plantar fascia, and the most significant irrational load applies to the junction of the fascia and the heel tubercle.
If such a load is constant, then there is a risk of microtears that can heal on their own, but if such trauma becomes constant, this leads to the development of inflammation with severe pain, aggravated by the thinning of the subcutaneous fat, which acts as a shock absorber for the heel when moving. As a result of compensatory processes, marginal bone growths are formed, which are called “heel spurs”. Bone spurs can develop from a few millimeters to one centimeter.
The disease usually affects women over 40 years of age. First of all, bone growths occur in people who are overweight, associated with deposits of fat cells or retention of excess fluid in the body.
In addition to this, the occurrence of spurs is facilitated by factors such as diseases of the large joints of the legs, osteochondrosis of the lumbar region with disruption of the sciatic nerve, diseases of the spine, disruptions in the body's metabolic processes - gout, disruption in the process of removing salt deposits, which leads to their accumulation, disruption blood circulation in the legs of people with poor vascular patency, and in 90% of cases the development of spurs is caused by flat feet.
This is due to the fact that with flat feet, the distribution of the load on the structure of the feet changes, in which overstrain of the tendons occurs, which in particularly difficult cases can lead to separation of the tendon fibers from the underlying bones. As a result of these processes, simultaneously with inflammation in the tendons, inflammation occurs in the superficial layers of bone tissue located underneath them.
In addition to flat feet, spurs in the heels can also occur as a result of acute or chronic injuries to the tendons and heel bone, for example, when a ligament is sprained or torn. Overload of the feet while wearing uncomfortable high-heeled shoes, bruises of the heel bone resulting from jumping from a significant height also contribute to the formation of the disease.
Inflammation of the heel spur can also occur as a result of some chronic inflammatory diseases of the joints, these can be psoriatic arthritis, polyarthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. When patients with psoriatic arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis undergo blood tests, specific markers appear, and in patients with gout, the level of uric acid increases significantly.
Also, pain in the heels can be caused by infectious diseases, such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, which are not always symptomatic.
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To establish the true cause of this disease, you need to see a doctor and undergo a medical examination.
A heel spur is a spike- or hook-shaped bony projection (protrusion) on the plantar surface of the heel bone or at the insertion of a ligament, usually the Achilles tendon. People also call it a “spur on the heels,” the main symptoms of which are acute, burning pain when leaning on this place, which can appear suddenly or develop gradually.
This disease is felt most strongly when a person just gets out of bed in the morning, as well as after prolonged sitting. The pain is sometimes compared to a nail in the heel, but sometimes it spreads throughout the entire heel area. For example, with a posterior heel spur, pain occurs at the insertion of the Achilles tendon during walking, as well as when pressing with the heel of the shoe. Swelling and calluses on the skin are also possible.
During a routine examination of the foot, symptoms appear when pressing on the sole in the heel area and when squeezing it from the sides. A spur is more accurately diagnosed during an X-ray examination of the foot, when a protrusion consisting of calcium salts deposited on the affected tendons appears on the images. According to doctors, it is this that is considered the cause of injury to surrounding tissues and pain.
The growth can be of different sizes, but the intensity of the pain does not depend on this. However, in some cases, the x-ray may not show any changes, and the cause of pain is changes in the soft tissues, such as subcalcaneal bursitis and Achilles bursitis (inflammation of the deep mucous bursae).
Most often, this disease manifests itself in older people due to anatomical changes in the foot. The risk group is mainly for women over 40 years of age.
Other reasons for the formation of heel spurs can be various injuries and infections, longitudinal flat feet, rheumatism, vascular and neurodystrophic disorders. Slouching, which causes a shift in the center of gravity, excess weight, weak calf muscles, heavy loads on the feet, diseases of the spine and large joints of the legs - all this can also lead to spurs on the heels.
To prevent heel spurs, it is necessary, first of all, to monitor your posture and excess weight, try to wear less high-heeled shoes, and not put overload on your feet. If you begin to experience pain in the heel and calcaneal area, immediately consult a doctor to determine the cause and make an accurate diagnosis.
Of all diseases of the musculoskeletal system, 10% are caused by heel spurs. Therefore, many means and methods have been invented for its treatment, both in traditional medicine and in specialized clinics. These measures are aimed at eliminating the inflammatory process and the formation of a capsule of connective tissue.
Treatment of heel spurs is a rather lengthy process, which depends on the cause of the disease and its stage. These are blockades with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, local gels and ointments, therapeutic massage, ultrasound therapy with hydrocortisone, shock wave methods, laser, cryoprocedures.
To relieve inflammation, a home method is widely used using foot baths with Dead Sea salts in accordance with the instructions on the package (usually 1 tablespoon of salt per 1.5 - 2 liters of water at a temperature of 40 degrees, duration - 15-20 minutes) . The procedures are performed daily until the pain symptoms completely disappear, usually 10-12 days. Baths with ordinary salt, soda and mud masks also bring the effect.
A heel spur may well go away without special therapy, but it will take you a long time - several months, during which it will be very painful for you to walk. In any case, whether you use any modern or traditional methods for treating heel spurs, you should relieve the painful area.
This can be done by wearing various orthopedic devices that are guaranteed to relieve pain and allow you to lead a normal lifestyle without losing your ability to work. These are orthopedic shoes, special insoles with longitudinal arches, heel pads for heel spurs with a recess or hole in the heel area, into which the sore spot falls and is not affected when walking.