Benefits of Foot Massage

A foot rub does not only feel good but can also promote many positive benefits  for your health. Massaging the foot helps to stimulate the muscles around your feet. This will help to lessen stiffness and can reduce pain in the heel, ankle, arch, and pad of your foot. This, in turn, results in stronger more flexible ankles making you less likely to injure your ankle or foot. The kneading of these muscles and tendons helps to create energy for your body by releasing blockages which hold back energy thus helps relieving symptoms of stress and fatigue. A calming foot massage right before bed can help your body to unwind and relax your nerves while encouraging restful sleep.

Improper footwear and sedentary lifestyles are a large factor in why most of us do not use the muscles in our feet correctly. A corrective measure would be to engage in at least 10 minutes of daily  foot massage. The stimulation created by the rubbing will help to transport oxygen to the body’s cells,  this helps to improve your blood circulation which is essential for overall health. The invigoration of the feet created by massage will also help to prevent varicose veins by awakening the lymphatic system. It has also been found that massaging your feet can bring relief from pain and inflammation that is caused by foot tendonitis, as well as addressing the symptoms of heel spurs. A warm olive oil or coconut oil would also assist in this process along with a foot roller. Be sure to roll it back and forth on the top of your feet as well as on the soles.

Bone Spurs and Your Feet

Bone spurs, also known as osteophyte, can be a fairly common foot ailment, especially as you grow older.

Quite often when people have a bone spur they will not even know it simply because often they do not cause any symptoms. However, if a bone spur is putting pressure on other bones or tissues that material can break down over time. This ailment can then cause swelling, pain, or tearing.

When bone spurs occur in the feet they can also cause corns and calluses because tissue builds up to create padding over the bone spur. They can also occur in the feet as a response to tight ligaments. Common activities such as dancing or running can induce the tightening of these connective tissues. Other common causes of bone spurs in feet are being overweight, wearing poorly fitting shoes, or wearing high heels often.

If a bone spur is not causing any pain or discomfort, it does not necessarily need to be treated. Proper care of this ailment will require the specific patients cause or causes of the symptoms. Weight loss will help to relieve pressure within the joints and allow for more effective stretching of the affected area, possibly the heel cord or the bottom of the foot. Your podiatrist, Dr. Forman, may also recommend deep tissue massage, rest, ice, or an over the counter anti-inflammatory drug, such as ibuprofen. Adding padding to a shoe or finding a more suitable type of footwear may also help relieve discomfort.

If the problem persists your doctor may prescribe a corticosteroid injection. This will reduce pain and inflammation in the tissue that is near the affected area. Contact us today if you have questions, or to schedule a consultation!

Heal the pain

If you run, walk, jump, skip, or hop, you are susceptible to heel pain. So, who’s not susceptible to the dreaded heel pain? Well, no one, really. Every mile you walk (or run, jump, skip, or hop) is putting tons and tons of stress on your feet and this stress can cause heel and ankle pain. Luckily, this rarely requires surgery and will get better on its own. However, it’s extremely important that if your heel hurts, make an appointment with Dr. Mark Forman at his Scottsdale office to determine the right path for recovery and whether you could possibly have Achilles Tendonitis or Plantar Fasciitis.

Achilles Tendonitis is exactly what it sounds like: inflammation of the achilles tendon, or the back of the heel. If you have heel pain that is the worst in the morning when you get out of bed of when you stand up after sitting for a prolonged period of time, you should make an appointment ASAP. If you do happen to have Achilles tendonitis, calf stretch, Heel cups/lifts, ice, night splint, physical therapy, activity modification will be your best bet to a speedy recovery. Of course, every case is different and Dr. Forman will tell you the method that would be best for you.

Now, if your pain stems from the sole of the foot (toward the heel end of the arch), you could have plantar fasciitis. Anyone can get plantar fasciitis, yet athletes are more likely to get it, as put more stress on their feet. The same treatments are applied to Plantar fasciitis as to achilles tendonitis. Plantar fasciitis tends to go away around 90% of the time, but this can take 12 to 18 months.

The morale of the story is this: if your heel is in pain, your best bet is to make an appointment with Dr. Forman so he can: 1) determine the source of the pain and 2) what you should do to get better as fast as possible.

Don't you hate when your feet fall asleep

It happens to all of us; on an airplane, sitting at our desk, or just lying in bed: the dreaded pins and needles of the foot falling asleep. Why does this happen? And is there a surefire remedy to make our foot feel normal again?

Well many people believe that when the foot falls asleep, it does so because of a lack of blood circulation. Sorry, but this is just an old wives tale. The foot actually falls asleep because of the nerves. Nerves are the tiny “wires” that are all over your body and make you feel. The majority of the nerves in your body carry messages from your brain to the body and vice versa. Think of them as electrical wires. And when you compress your nerves for a long enough period of time, the communication from brain to foot (or any part of your body that is being compressed for a long enough time) is disrupted. This disruption is what causes the pins and needles feeling, or what some call, the static screen of the body.

How do you get rid of this? Most people move their foot around to get blood flow back, and even though blood flow may not be the problem, their solution is correct. By moving your foot to new places and decompressing the nerves that were disrupted, the annoying feeling will go away fairly quickly.

So, whenever your foot, hand, arm, or leg gets those pins and needles, and you know it fell asleep, move it around (dance if you have to!) and get those nerves communicating again!