A stabbing pain in my heel, now what?

You may recognize it, a stabbing pain under your heel in the morning or after a short rest. How does it arise and most importantly, what can you do about it?

The heel bone, or the heel of the foot, is a large and solid bone that plays an important role in standing and walking.

The heel bone is an important part of the ankle joint and serves as an attachment point for a number of ligaments and tendons in the foot. Complaints / injuries to the heel are most common in two specific places; the back or bottom of the heel.

One of the most common foot complaints is pain on the underside of the heel, also called plantar fasciitis (tendon inflammation). It is a mechanical irritation of a tendon plate in the sole of the foot. This tendon runs from the bottom of the heel to the five toe joints.

Due to excessive tensile stress during the push-off of the foot on the tendon plate, there is (usually) so much irritation on the attachment of the heel bone that this leads to an overuse inflammation. The pain mainly exists when the inflammation is burdened, so when you stand on the heel. There is often a starting pain, which decreases after a few steps. More strain will ultimately lead to more pain!

You can recognize a tendon inflammation by the following symptoms:

  • Sharp pain under or just in front of the heel bone
  • Start pain (pain in the morning or after a short rest)
  • Tax-dependent complaint pattern

These complaints are often incorrectly referred to as heel spurs, but heel spurs are a bony reinforcement (thorn-shaped calcification) of the heel bone, which does not necessarily mean that this always causes pain. When you have the above symptoms, the complaints are not from heel spurs but from tendon inflammation. It is not logical that you have a load-dependent complaint pattern with heel spurs.

How do I recover from heel complaints?
For effective treatment of your complaints, you can go to a podiatrist from PodoPro. Before the correct treatment can be applied, the cause must first be determined. A podiatrist from PodoPro can use his biomechanical knowledge to immediately identify the cause of the excessive tensile stress during an examination. This can often be treated immediately with manual therapy.

In addition to this, he will usually tape the foot. Finally, a correction sole can be fitted which controls the settlement. When necessary, the patient receives advice on footwear and foot loadability. The aim must be that the sole is no longer needed over time. Heel complaints are often said to be persistent. We disagree with this. When the cause is addressed, tendonitis can almost be resolved by 4-6 weeks.

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Make an appointment directly via 085-0080102

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