The foot is an extremely complex part of the body. The foot comprises one hundred and twenty fixed muscles, nerves and ligaments, twenty-six bones, and thirty-three joints.
However, foot pain is a major problem today, even though very few people are born with problems that would cause them to feel pain in their feet.
The reality is that when we feel pain in our feet, it’s usually because of how we act and care for our feet on a daily basis.
The average person takes anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand steps daily, putting much more stress and pressure on our feet than you’d think.
Whether it’s from physical exercises and activities, everyday walking, improper posture, or shoes that don’t fit our feet very well, pain under our feet is largely due to how we treat our feet each day.
Different Types of Foot Pain
First, there is no such thing as ‘foot pain.’ Foot pain is a general term to describe any pain you feel in your foot.
There are actually different types of foot pain: toe pain, forefoot pain, midfoot pain, heel pain, and arch pain.
Toe Pain
The most common types of toe pain are corns and calluses. Corns can build up between your toes and develop further due to perspiration.
On the other hand, calluses develop on the bottom of your toes rather than in between and build up and develop mostly by rubbing against your shoe.
Poorly fitted shoes, putting too much pressure on your toes, or walking on hard surfaces are all reasons why corns and calluses can develop on your toes.
They also develop from physical activity and exercise where increasing pressure is applied to your toes either after a prolonged time or in rapid movements (such as jumping up in the air and then landing down on your toes).
Forefoot Pain
The most common type of forefoot pain is neuromas. Neuromas happen when the nerve or tissues in the foot suffer from swelling and inflammation.
You may suffer from the neuroma if you feel a tingling or a burning sensation in your forefoot. A neuroma can be caused by wearing uncomfortable shoes, suffering a physical injury, or developing a medical condition such as arthritis.
Neuroma most commonly develops from the metatarsal bones (the bones that lead to the toes), specifically between the second, third, and fourth bones.
Another form of forefoot pain is metatarsalgia, which is pain on the ball of the foot. Metatarsalgia is usually caused by uncomfortable shoes or footwear (especially high heels) and physical activities or exercises.
It also largely depends on a person’s foot type. People with high-arched feet, for example, are more likely to develop metatarsalgia than people who don’t.
Midfoot Pain
Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome is the most common form of midfoot pain. It results from when a nerve is compressed behind the anklebone, causing sharp pain. Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome usually results from physical injury.
Heel Pain
The heel is perhaps the most vulnerable part of your foot because it is also the largest part of the foot.
More people who suffer from foot pain experience pain specifically in their heel than in any other part of their foot.
The most common type of heel pain is plantar fasciitis, which results from inflammation of the ligaments in the heel.
These ligaments affect, in turn, the overall arch of your foot, so how you walk or posture may be entirely dependent on the condition of your heel.
Plantar fasciitis most often occurs during high-intensity physical exercises, activities, and sports, such as running and jumping.
Plantar fasciitis is even more likely to occur during physical activities if you wear uncomfortable shoes. You can tell if you suffer from plantar fasciitis since there will usually be a sudden, sharp pain in the heel of your foot.
While the pain will eventually subside, it will return at intervals if you continue to ignore it, so it’s best that you treat it once you suspect you may have plantar fasciitis.
Another form of heel pain is heel spurs, a bone growth that extends out of the bone of the heel to the ground and usually develops first out of plantar fasciitis.
The pain that develops out of this bone growth is caused by the nerves that are disturbed and damaged by it. Despite this, some people develop heel spurs who did not develop plantar fasciitis first.
Arch Pain
Last but not least, we come to arch pain. One of the primary causes of arch pain is flat feet, which is a condition in which the foot does not have an arch.
Many people are born with flat feet and inherit them. However, flat feet can also develop in adults.
Most of the adults that it does develop in are older adults over the age of fifty. Overall, a flat foot isn’t as big of a problem as you might think. There are many athletes with flat feet, and they have succeeded very well at what they do.
For people with high arches on their feet, the main cause of pain can be a high arch. You are also more likely to sustain a foot injury with a high arch.
Branching off of high arches is clawfoot, a hereditary condition characterized by both high arches and long toes.
It is rare, but it can cause pain and also cause you to become imbalanced in your walking and posturing.
Recently, I’ve been experiencing some tingling in my forefoot. It sounds like I might be suffering from Neuromas although I’m not sure. For the most part, I feel like it could just be safe to get my foot checked out by a doctor.
Recently, I’ve been experiencing some tingling in my forefoot. It sounds like I might be suffering from Neuromas although I’m not sure. For the most part, I feel like it could just be safe to get my foot checked out by a doctor.
I just started getting into running and have been experiencing some heel pain. Looking at this article I think it may be plantar fasciitis because it’s cause by physical exercise. I’ll have to go to a professional to get it looked at so it doesn’t get worse.
I just started getting into running and have been experiencing some heel pain. Looking at this article I think it may be plantar fasciitis because it’s cause by physical exercise. I’ll have to go to a professional to get it looked at so it doesn’t get worse.