Why do my heels hurt?

[mrbstephens]

Last year my heels started to hurt after I'd been doing some physical activity. I'd feel the pain after sitting for a while. The pain is so bad when I got up and I'd hobble around like an old lady. After some research I figured it must be heel spurs which is common in overweight people, BUT I'm not overweight. I mean, I could stand to lose 5 or 10 pounds, but I'm pretty much average weight for my height. Then I though it was my shoes, so I started wearing sneakers with heel cushions in them. That helped a little. The pains went away over the winter as my physical activity lessened. So, it's spring and I'm active again.........and the pain is back.

 

[abifae]

How do you walk? On which part of your foot? Do you have any balance problems? Hips issues?

What kind of shoes do you wear? Do you have a high arch?

 

[mrbstephens]

How do you walk? On which part of your foot? Do you have any balance problems? Hips issues?

What kind of shoes do you wear? Do you have a high arch?

I guess I walk........on my heels? Never thought about it. I'll have to pay attention tomorrow. I have scoliosis so my posture is terrible. I slouch.

I switch between my walking shoes (sneakers) and my crocs. My feet are super wide and pretty flat.

 

[abifae]

Interesting article on barefoot walking


I was told that if you walk through water and then walk on cardboard, you learn a lot about how you walk. Where you put your weight. How straight you walk, where your feet go....

eta: I walk almost entirely on the ball of my foot. I have a perfect callous between my big and next toe on the ball. My steps are even but I fall more heavily on my right side. I have very high arches, but my heels rarely touch down anyway. I therefore have very tight calves (I do daily stretches to help with it).

 

[OrganicKale]

That really sounds like plantar fasciitis. That often causes heel spurs. It is common in overweight people, but not limited to the overweight. Stretch by standing on block near a wall. Put your toes on the block and let your heels hang down. Feel the stretch in your calves. Tight calves are often a contributor to plantar fasciitis. Another stretch is to sit with your legs in front of you and loop a strap around your foot, and gently pull the top of the foot towards you. Ice helps, as do orthotics. If it gets really bad you can get cortisone shots. Of course there is surgery, but I never went that far. I went for shots and physical therapy, got orthotics, and now I stretch and take anti inflammatories when I want to walk long distances.

 

[MsPony]

Agreed w/ plantar fascitis & heel spurs.

I walk HEAVILY on my heels, so heavily I have to remind myself to tip forward a bit. Because of this + high arch (and a draft mule broke one foot, which I never got cast) it leads to be plantar fascitis and heel spurs. Def do the foot stretches, I have to do it daily. Also look into barefoot walking...

 

[Lady Henevere]

If it's plantar fasciitis, you can also roll a ball or dowel under your foot to help relax the tendon and help healing. I know it goes against conventional wisdom for plantar fasciitis, but I have found heat to be helpful. (Plantar fasciitis may be a misnomer anyway - "itis" means inflammation, and they have found that chronic sufferers of plantar pain don't generally have inflammation of the fascia. Yet a lot of the conventional wisdom on healing is geared toward reducing inflammation. Heat can be helpful because the fascia does not have a lot of natural blood flow, so adding heat can increase blood flow and lead to faster healing of the micro-tears that cause pain.)

Barefoot walking can let you know whether your walk is unnatural (heavy heel landing, etc.) but it also forces your foot to rely heavily on the natural strength of your arch, which may be weak if you're a regular shoe wearer, and it can irritate the fascia even more. So I agree with the barefoot walking, but don't go overboard by doing too much too soon. Do a little every day at first - don't go for a long barefoot walk.

And it may help to stretch your feet by straightening your leg and flexing your feet way up before getting out of bed or before getting up from sitting down for a long time - it helps the tendon stretch a little before that first step.

Hope you feel better soon.

(Love that article abi -- that article totally inspired me a while back and led to me fixing my shin splints.)

 

[abifae]

I have to stretch my feet and legs a LOT. I almost never put my heel down lol. So I put a lot of extra pressure on the balls of my feet. I do all the classic ballet stretches for the feet

Here are some foot stretches .

Video of foot stretches My feet are fully ballet feet lol. My feet look exactly like that when I stretch them. I have no idea if it works as well for flatter arches.

 

[mrbstephens]

Thanks for the help everyone. I suppose I do walk on my heels. That would explain why the heels on my shoes wear down so fast. I've been leaning forward while walking today. It feels weird. :/

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I've dealt with this a few times.

The first time I suffered for many months and went to a doctor. Now, he never told me exactly what it was (so maybe same as yours, maybe not, but it was intense heel pain). He told me to soak my feet in hot water every day. I was surprised -- so simple? I was glad it was cheap, and not exposing me to meds but I felt silly for not trying it myself. They actually DID get better over a period of maybe two weeks, and the pain was gone.

Years later I got them again (heel spurs for sure this time) and was told to take two bottles of Nature's Sunshine Hydrangea at twice the recommended dosage. Cleared them right up before I finished the second bottle. That is ONLY for heel spurs as far as heel pain though, since what it is supposed to do is break down unnatural calcium deposits in the body.

Just tossing it out in case it helps. I'll be looking into the other suggestions here since I STILL get shin splints, and my feet have been achy in general lately (I stand all day on concrete floors when I work).

Hope you feel better soon!