Foot Pain Common Causes

Sami Anwar

Three out of four Americans will experience a common foot problem in their lifetime. Therefore, you're not alone. These conditions can be painful and embarrassing. However, the vast majority of these ailments result from neglect, lack of awareness, and proper care. Very few people are born with foot conditions. Learning to recognize and treat common foot problems will keep your feet healthy and happy!

A bunion is a bony bump at the base of the big toe. Joint mal-alignment that can become larger over time causes bunions. It causes the big toe to deviate toward the others. A bunion can be very painful due to pressure and/or arthritis and lead to instability of other joints in the foot. Anti-inflammatory medications, pads, wider toe-box shoes, and less heel height may help. Custom shoe inserts (functional orthotics) can address the overall instability of the foot and may slow down the progression of the bunion. However, when conservative treatments fail to alleviate symptoms, surgery to correct the bunion deformity may be indicated.

Friction and pressure cause corns and calluses. Corns are calluses impacted into the skin and are often small, round, and painful to pressure. Calluses typically appear at the ball of the foot and heel. Ill-fitting shoes or foot deformities such as hammertoes and bunions can cause corns and calluses. Pads can help relieve a painful corn or callus as well as periodic trimming by a podiatrist. In some cases, it's necessary for the patient to get custom shoe inserts (functional orthotics) or surgery to correct the underlying deformity causing the corn or callus.

Characteristics of gout include redness, swelling, sudden pain, and stiffness, most commonly in the large joint of the big toe. Gout can also occur in the foot, ankle or knees. Gout is the result of too much uric acid (UA) in the body, which crystalizes in the joints and causes pain. Acute attacks can last days or weeks; physicians treat gout with oral ant-inflammatory medication and/or cortisone injection. It's possible to prevent continued acute attacks by managing one's diet and/or taking UA-lowering medication. A doctor can develop a treatment plan that is best suited for each patient. Untreated, gout can become chronic and damage joints to a point where surgery is inevitable.

Plantar warts are viral infections that develop callused growths on the soles of the feet. Contagious, they're often spread via public pools and showers. They are often painful and appear as round, isolated growths or spread in a geographic pattern (mosaic plantar wart). Though they are harmless, physicians recommend treatment of plantar warts. Topical salicylic acid may help, while burning, freezing, laser therapy, and surgical removal are more aggressive and sometimes necessary options.

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