The most common cause of heel pain is incorrect foot movement during walking or running. This can place too much stress on the heel bone and the soft tissues that attach to it. An example of incorrect foot movement is excessive pronation - leaning inward as each step is completed.

Heel pain, plantar fasciitis or heel spur syndrome is caused by an abnormal and excessive pull of the plantar fascia at its insertion. Morning pain and pain after periods of rest is characteristic and can progress to pain all the time. 90% of patients with Heel Pain can be treated successfully without surgical intervention. Treatment is aimed at reducing the soft inflammation tissue via strapping, oral anti-inflammatories, injection and orthotics.

No, pathomechanics cause the abnormal pull of the planter fascier of the heel. Being overweight aggravates the symptoms but does not cause them.

Heel pain becomes increasingly common with age, especially among the over-40 crowd. Often it results from a condition called plantar fasciitis --that's inflammation of the plantar fascia, a sheath of connective tissue that runs along the bottom of the foot. As this tissue becomes overstretched and inflamed, it produces sharp pain, especially first thing in the morning when you get out of bed. The pain eases as you walk around, but it can come back, especially if you sit for a long time.

Heel pain is the #1 most common foot problem in the world. It comes from repetitive "overstretching" of the plantar fascia (a band of tough tissue like tendon) which is due to the arch collapsing too far to the ground (called overpronation) with each foot step. It has been accumulating over your lifetime, just like the wear and tear of a machine that is finally starting to break down. For more information, look here.

Heel pain is common in older people because the natural fat padding on the bottom of the foot wears with age, causing the ball and heel of the feet to take the brunt of pressure when walking on hard surfaces.

Heel pain can have many causes. The most common causes are heel spurs, a bone bruise, or bursitis. A heel spur can become painful when a person increases their activity level suddenly, or walks or runs in poor shoe gear (insufficient padding). This activity can also cause a bone bruise. An x-ray should be taken to assess the heel bone. A stress fracture is sometimes seen on an x-ray, which can also result from the aforementioned activities.

The AchilloTrain support has a heel cushion built in to take pressure off the Achilles tendon. Every AchilloTrain product comes with an extra heel cushion for the unaffected foot. This is to keep one leg from being longer than the other which would cause a person to walk abnormally and create other biomechanical problems (back pain, joint pain, etc.).

Magnets are often worn by patients to alleviate many types of aches, pains, and ailments. Some people advocate wearing magnets to help broken bones heal faster. A mallet finger, also called a baseball finger, is an injury to the fingertip. Usually caused by a blow to the end of the finger, a mallet finger requires splinting for proper treatment. A McMurray test is performed with the patient lying flat and the examiner bending the knee.

Heel Seats are most effective and are designed to be worn as a pair. By wearing only one Heel Seat, the biomechanical balance of the body will become upset. During movement, abnormal mechanics of the feet that result from wearing only one Heel Seat may reduce the effectiveness of the HTP treatment.

No, more than 90 percent of the time this type of problem can be cured by conservative measures. Sometimes fear of surgery prevents a person from getting needed care. You can call our office at 703.421.1900 for a professional consultation. A majority of our surgeries are performed in our office surgical suite under local anesthetic. More involved cases or severe infections are usually done in the hospital.

The therapy works to promote your body’s own healing processes by increasing blood flow and blocking pain transmission. These processes work to promote tendon healing.

Thanks to advances in medication technology, we are able to keep you very comfortable after surgery. After surgery, any temporary discomfort does not compare to the pain of arthritis endured by most people in months and years before surgery. And because hip replacement patients are not “sick,” you will not be treated as such. You will wear casual clothing after surgery, not hospital gowns.