Your heels do a lot for your body, bearing your weight with every step you take. It’s not surprising, then, that they often run into issues. In fact, if your heel is hurting, quite a few different health conditions could be to blame.
We can help you figure out what’s going on. As heel pain specialists, Christopher Vittori, DPM, and Ameet Thakrar, DPM, can examine your heel, evaluate your symptoms, and use tests like an X-ray to uncover the issue behind your heel pain. Then, we tailor treatment to ease your discomfort. To move away from heel pain, visit either of our Vittori Foot & Ankle Specialist offices in Homer Glen or New Lenox, Illinois.
In a lot of cases, the patients who come see us for heel pain are dealing with one of these conditions:
Your Achilles tendon connects your calf muscle to your heel. As its name suggests, it’s not impervious to injury.
Over time, strain on this major tendon can cause inflammation, leading to uncomfortable symptoms. Most people with Achilles tendinitis experience pain at the back of the leg above their heel. That pain might be at its worst after activity or first thing in the morning.
Throughout your body, small sacs of fluid cushion your joints. These bursa also provide shock absorption around your heel and ankle. Stress or an acute injury like rolling your ankle can cause inflammation in the bursa (bursitis), resulting in heel pain.
These small calcium deposits develop underneath your heel bone. In some cases, heel spurs don’t cause any pain. But if they grow too long, they can press into your plantar fascia, contributing to plantar fasciitis.
Along the bottom of your foot, you have a thick band of connective tissue called the plantar fascia. As you walk, run, and jump, it stresses this tissue band. This can cause inflammation, resulting in plantar fasciitis.
With this condition, people generally feel a stabbing pain in the bottom of their heel. It can be at its worst when you first get out of bed.
Your heel pain could be the result of a small fracture in one of the bones in your heel. Stress fractures develop because of strain on the affected bone, usually as a result of repeated activity (e.g., an intense sport, strenuous manual labor).
All told, a lot could be at play if you’re dealing with heel pain. To get a diagnosis and a treatment plan to help relieve your discomfort, call or schedule an appointment online with our team at Vittori Foot & Ankle Specialist today.
