Enjoy pain-free walking again – a physiotherapist can help with heel spurs too

Enjoy pain-free walking again – a physiotherapist can help with heel spurs too Enjoy pain-free walking again – a physiotherapist can help with heel spurs too

Walking, Movement and Health

A heel spur can make everyday life really uncomfortable. How can you tell if you have a heel spur? One way to help prevent it can be barefoot footwear.

A heel spur, where pain often shoots up into the calf, doesn’t happen by chance. This bony growth on the heel bone is caused by pathological overloading of the soft tissues of the foot and calf. Overloading can develop due to poor movement patterns, hypermobility, or unsuitable footwear.

How can you deal with a heel spur? Special exercises, wearing barefoot shoes and even taking homeopathic remedies may help.

How to spot a heel spur

If you’re struggling with pain across the heel or along its inner edge, which appears not only when walking, during sport, in the morning after waking, but often even during sleep, there’s a good chance you have what’s known as a heel spur. This bony growth forms on the underside of the heel as a result of overloading the soft tissues that attach to the heel bone.

Inflammation of the tendons then develops, leading to calcium crystal deposits and ultimately the formation of a bony growth. There can be several causes – long-term overloading of the foot (running on hard surfaces, prolonged standing), wearing unsuitable footwear (narrow toe box, high heels), various foot deformities (e.g. functional flat feet), as well as poor posture.

What your doctor may recommend for a heel spur

If you suspect a heel spur, don’t put off seeing a doctor. The sooner treatment starts, the sooner you can get on top of the problem. A sports doctor or orthopaedic specialist will first examine your foot to rule out osteoarthritis or osteoporosis. They’ll use either an X-ray or, more commonly nowadays, an ultrasound, which can reliably detect a heel spur.

Most often, alongside rehabilitation or shockwave therapy, they may prescribe ointments, tablets or injections containing corticosteroids. These can reduce pain and inflammation quickly, but they often come with many side effects.

An alternative to corticosteroids can be various pharmacy creams and gels containing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, along with cooling gel pads to ease inflammation and pain. For your shoes, foam insoles or soft gel inserts are often recommended to reduce the pressure on the heel bone when walking.

And because the strained tendons around the heel need enough nutrients to regenerate, it’s also worth focusing on food supplements rich in protein.

A physiotherapist can also help relieve the pain

Common procedures used for heel spurs include, in addition to laser therapy, therapeutic ultrasound or magnetotherapy. These physical therapy methods have the advantage of being readily available through public healthcare facilities, but on the other hand they’re not always as effective – and they don’t address the underlying cause.

A private physiotherapist, however, goes further. They focus mainly on why the heel spur developed in the first place and help you build the right habits to prevent the problem from coming back.

At your first appointment, the physiotherapist will carry out a comprehensive kinesiological assessment to find out why the heel spur occurred. They will then treat the soft tissues in the foot and calf area manually and explain how to do exercises at home aimed at releasing/stretching tendons and muscles, or learning correct foot strike and roll-through when walking.

Therapy may also include shockwave treatment, which releases all the muscles around the heel bone, and taping is also widely used at the moment to help maintain proper muscle tension in the treated area.

Home exercises and massage can help

During the acute inflammation phase, it’s best to limit sport and give your body a chance to recover. Overloaded tendons and muscles in the foot and calf are recommended to be stretched and released daily according to your physiotherapist’s instructions – ideally first thing in the morning. You can also use various balance aids, a foam ball, a spiky massage ball or alignment socks.

In the evening, it’s then a good idea to massage your feet – either by hand or with a bubble foot bath. Later, once the acute phase of inflammation has passed, you can add warm compresses, which pleasantly warm the muscles and help release tension.

Bc. Edita Prošková – studied physiotherapy and, during her studies, focused on podology. In her private practice in Roudnice nad Labem, she works with acquired and congenital foot issues in both adults and children.

Homeopathy is often effective too

For patients suffering from heel spurs, homeopathy can also work very well – specifically a remedy called Hekla lava 9 C at a dosage of 5 granules twice a day for 3–4 weeks. As the name suggests, it’s diluted lava ash from the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Sheep in the surrounding area that accidentally ingested ash from the lava began to develop painful bony growths.

The principle of homeopathy is that like cures like, which is why the sheep’s symptoms improved significantly after being given homeopathic remedies. Human patients also report that the symptoms associated with heel spurs usually disappeared within as little as two weeks. If symptoms persist, contact your homeopath.

Prevention may be found in barefoot shoes

Please bear in mind that barefoot shoes are definitely not suitable during acute pain associated with a heel spur. Instead, they serve as prevention, so it’s best to switch to them only once your heel spur has healed.

That’s because walking barefoot has the advantage of loading the foot and the whole leg evenly, so there’s less risk of one-sided overloading. There’s no thick sole, heel or cushioning designed to support the arch. The sole of barefoot footwear is thin (up to 6 mm), has so-called zero drop (i.e. the difference between heel and toe), and provides no arch support.

Hope for better days

A heel spur can certainly be very troublesome, but it’s absolutely possible to get rid of it. What matters most is starting therapy early and being diligent with your home exercises. If you arm yourself with patience, results usually won’t take long to show.

Where will your next steps take you?