Plantar heel pain

প্লান্টার হিল পেইন বা গোড়ালির নিচের ব্যথা কেন হয়?

পায়ের তলার ভেতর দিয়ে একটি শক্ত অথচ নমনীয় টিস্যুর পট্টি চলে গেছে, যার নাম প্ল্যান্টার ফ্যাশিয়া। এটি গোড়ালির হাড়কে পায়ের আঙুলের সঙ্গে জুড়ে রাখে এবং পায়ের জন্য শক্ত ধাক্কা সামলানোর কাজ করে।

হঠাৎ বা বারবার চাপ পড়লে এই টিস্যু মোটা হয়ে যেতে পারে, আর তা থেকেই গোড়ালিতে ব্যথা হয়। আশপাশের পেশি এবং গোড়ালির হাড়ও আক্রান্ত হতে পারে।

সাধারণত এক্স-রে বা স্ক্যানের প্রয়োজন হয় না, তবে অন্য কোনো রোগ আছে কি না তা বাদ দিতে চাইলে চিকিৎসক এগুলো করাতে বলতে পারেন।

Treating plantar heel pain

Plantar heel pain is often referred to as a self limiting condition. This means it can get better on its own over time. There are things you can do yourself that can help relieve heel pain and speed up your recovery.

Exercises for plantar heel pain

Exercises designed to stretch both your calf muscles and your plantar fascia should help relieve pain and improve flexibility in the affected foot.

Learn about exercises for foot conditions

Pacing your activities

While recovering you should try to stay as active as you can.

Remember a little activity is better than nothing. Continue to stay within acceptable pain limits but remember you don’t need to be pain free. Aim to do a little bit more each day or every few days.

This guide can help you to understand if you’re pacing your daily activities at the right level as you build your movement levels up. It’ll also let you see how much pain or discomfort is acceptable.

It can be helpful to rate your pain out of 10 (0 being no pain, 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever had), for example:

• 0 to 3 – minimal pain
• 4 to 5 – acceptable pain
• 6 to 10 – excessive pain

Pain during activity

Aim to keep your pain within a rating of 0 to 5. If your pain gets above this level, you can change the level of activity by:

• reducing the number of times you do a movement
• reducing the pace of an activity
• increasing rest time between activities

Pain after activity

Activity shouldn’t make your existing pain worse overall. Increasing activity can lead to increased discomfort as your body gets used to regaining your activity levels. This kind of pain should ease quickly and your pain should be no worse the morning after.

Pain management

Pain medication can help you move more comfortably, which can help manage your symptoms.

More about taking painkillers.

Using ice on your plantar heel pain can help reduce symptoms.

Use a barrier, like a towel, to protect your skin from a burn. Never place heat or ice directly on your skin. Apply for no longer than 20 minutes at a time and leave a few hours between treatments.

How to avoid hot water bottle burns and scalds – Care of Burns in Scotland

When to stop using ice

You should stop treating the area with ice if you notice an increase in redness, discolouration or blistering of the skin.

Read more about burns and scalds

If you have any issues with circulation or sensation, you shouldn’t use ice as a treatment for plantar heel pain.

Footwear

You should avoid wearing hard, unsupportive, flat-soled shoes because they won’t provide your heel with support. This could make your heel pain worse.

Try to wear well fitted shoes that support and cushion your feet. Running shoes are particularly useful.

Supportive devices

Supportive devices (like insoles) can be used if other treatments haven’t worked. While they can help some, not everyone would benefit from using them.

A healthcare professional would suggest which devices would be appropriate for you to use.

A short term alternative to using insoles is to have your heel strapped with sports strapping (zinc oxide) tape, this helps relieve pressure on your heel. Some people can have an allergic reaction to this tape. If you have any known sensitivity or have any skin reaction stop using this immediately.

Benefits of keeping active

Keeping active is an essential part of your treatment and recovery and is the single best thing you can do for your health.

Being physically active can:

• maintain your current levels of fitness – even if you have to modify what you normally do, any activity is better than none
• keep your other muscles and joints strong and flexible
• prevent a recurrence of the problem
• help you aim for a healthy body weight

Corticosteroid Injections

If painkillers aren’t helping to control the pain, your healthcare professional may discuss having a corticosteroid injection into your heel.

Corticosteroids are medicines that help reduce pain and inflammation. They may also be given with a local anaesthetic.

Injections won’t cure your condition, they’re used to help with the symptoms.

Read more about corticosteroids

Work

Plantar heel pain can sometimes mean you need to take some time off work to help recovery. How long you’re off will depend on your condition and your role at work.

You don’t need to be symptom free before you consider returning to work. Continuing to go to work, or returning to work as soon as is possible for you, will help your recovery.

Gradually getting back to your normal daily activities can help to build up your strength and stamina levels.

Help and support

Following this advice, you should see gradual improvements over time.

Talk to a healthcare professional if:

• your symptoms haven’t improved within12 weeks following this advice
• your symptoms get worse

Find out about access to MSK services in your area.

When dealing with any health problem it’s important to also look after your mental wellbeing. This can impact your recovery.

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