Pain on the bottom of your heel that feels like an aching, drawing sensation that only getting off your feet can help. This pain is more often associated with plantar fasciitis, also known as plantar heel pain. People with plantar fasciitis tend to report that the first few steps after getting out of bed in the morning are the worst.

Pain at the back of your heel that comes on during activity is generally associated with the Achilles tendon, or its insertion onto the heel bone. The Achilles tendon is the large tendon that connects your calf muscles to your foot. These muscles and tendon have an important role in propulsion through your gait cycle, and if overloaded can result in pain that is difficult to recover from without professional intervention. This sort of pain can also indicate a tear in the Achilles tendon that requires fast action by your podiatrist and allied healthcare team.

Pain that is felt as a deep ache within the heel, or along the sides of the heel can be associated with a stress fracture of the heel bone. Stress fractures are overuse injuries and may come on gradually with a sustained increase in activity. Seeking professional input to manage a stress fracture is important to prevent the bone from sustaining further damage and speeding up recovery.

Heel pain in kids is very common in active children between the ages of 8-12 in girls and 8-15 in boys. There is a combination of factors that contribute to heel pain in children. Activity levels, rapid growth rates and certain foot types create the perfect storm for kids that fall into this category. This condition is known as Sever’s disease (or calcaneal apophysitis, which makes it easy to see why it’s called Sever’s…). This condition is related to the growth plate on the back of the heel bone that is still actively growing in children. Due to the factors above, the growth plate is placed under stress and becomes inflamed. This can stop children from playing sports or even playing games in the playground at school. It is very common and a podiatrist can help to get children back to normal fairly quickly.

Bone spurs are small bony outgrowths which form on bone, quite often at the heel either on the bottom (Plantar) or back near the achilles tendon (Dorsal). The reason why spurs occur is still highly debated with the current thinking that abnormal biomechanics is the main reason, with heredity, metabolic, inflammatory and other diseases also thought to contribute. They are often present without pain and can be found in many non symptomatic people, however they can have injury to them just like any other bone. Bony injury, like a fracture, bruising, swelling or bony stress can be the reason for pain in the heel. Your team at FAI are well versed in looking for the signs and symptoms of heel spurs, lesions or associated trauma.

This painful condition involves the collection of fat on the bottom of the heel where it becomes thinned (Atrophied) and unable to provide its cushioning/supportive function. This can be after other conditions such as plantar fasciitis, or be a gradual process of age, increased body weight, walking imbalance. It can also be due to your foot structure, family history, inappropriate footwear or repetitive activities. This condition can be diagnosed by your team at FAI and the management can lead you to return to the activities you love, reduce pain and improve your overall foot function.

We have several nerves of our lower leg which give both sensation and movement to part of our heel. These nerves can become irritated at any point of their pathway, this can cause pain at the place it is irritated or further down the leg from where the irritation has occurred. This can be as high up as the low back at the spinal cord where the nerves form. Figuring out why the nerve is irritated is very important. Changed nerve function can cause us to walk differently and can often be there before other things on this list can occur or be caused by them. Nerves can be affected by mechanical reasons like injury, surgery or be affected by conditions such as Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson’s, Shingles or Neurofibromatosis. Foot and Ankle expert Podiatrists along with their team are aware of the signs to look out for to figure if the Nerves are involved and help manage them well.