Walking too much foot distress Is it tired or inflammatory?

As the weather warmed up and the epidemic dissipated, everyone began to open WeChat sports again to see how many steps they could rank in every day. Especially middle-aged and elderly people with diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood lipids and other three highs, always think of walking thousands more steps tomorrow, exercise and strive for a better ranking. As everyone knows, this is the culprit of your foot pain.

Some people may ask, isn't it normal to be tired and have a sore foot after walking too much? But there is a manifestation of inflammation to pay attention to: if you have no significant pain in your feet during walking or the pain is mild, you feel severe pain in the plantar, heel or forefoot when you stand up after resting for a period of time, and it is relieved after walking a distance, but you can also feel obvious pain when walking long distances - this manifestation is usually caused by plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the ligamentous bands that connect the calcaneus to the phalangeal bones, located around the heel, on the soles of the feet, or on the forefoot. The exact cause of the onset is unknown, but it is speculated that long-term walking, jumping, standing, etc. lead to repeated minor damage-repair circulation of plantar fascial tissue, and eventually transform into chronic plantar pain, similar to tendonitis.

When the above manifestations occur, the treatment of plantar fasciitis should be carried out in the following order:

The first step is to rest as little as possible to walk as little as possible, reduce repeated damage to the plantar fascia, appropriately increase non-weightbearing lower limb muscle exercise to achieve the amount of exercise required by chronic systemic diseases (diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia), prevent muscle atrophy and joint stiffness, etc.

Step 2 Hot compress increases local temperature through hot water foot soaking, ultra-short wave, infrared irradiation, etc., promotes local blood circulation, and enhances the body's self-repair ability, so as to achieve the purpose of shortening the course of the disease.

Step 3 Change shoes Wear loose, comfortable, and well-fitting soft-soled sneakers to reduce damage to the plantar fascial tissue. Clinical observations have found that the number of patients suffering from plantar fasciitis from wearing high heels, leather shoes and tighter boots for a long time has increased significantly.

Step 4 Take medicine oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics (etoricoxib, erixib, loxoprofenna tablets, etc.) and muscle relaxants (eperidone hydrochloride tablets, tizanidine hydrochloride tablets, baclofen tablets, etc.) to relieve symptoms, shorten the course of the disease, reduce the degree of pain, it should be noted that topical application drugs and external plasters are not effective.

Special reminder: Be careful to choose invasive treatment methods such as small needle knife and occlusion.

How can plantar fasciitis prevent recurrent attacks?

First of all, for people with a large amount of exercise, it is recommended to change the mode of exercise and participate in non-weight-bearing sports such as swimming, which can also meet the needs of exercise. Secondly, it is recommended to wear loose, comfortable, and well-fitting soft-soled sneakers, avoid wearing high heels, leather shoes, boots, slippers and ill-fitting shoes, and try to avoid walking barefoot to reduce the probability of plantar fasciitis injury. Third, increase local warming of the feet after exercise, such as hot water foot soaking, ultra-short wave, infrared irradiation, etc., to promote the repair of damaged fascia. Finally, recurrent plantar pain, the above treatment has no obvious effect, you must seek medical attention in time.

Text/Rong Wei (Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital)