It is not uncommon to find thousands of people complaining about heel pain. Heel pain is extremely common. There are several reasons associated for the occurrence of heel pain. You should go for a proper treatment not to cure the pain, but to cure the cause of the pain itself. Appropriate treatment is essential to cure the pain.

Causes of Heel Pain:

• Plantar Fasciitis

• This is the most common cause of heel pain. Plantar fasciitis is a muscle running from the bottom heel of your foot till the toes. When get stretched due to running or over use, it gets inflammated and then starts inflicting pain. You can have plantar fasciitis when you start getting heel pain due to prolonged walking

• Spur of Heel

This is yet another commonly associated heel problem associated to plantar fasciitis and is observed in the patients having heel pain due plantar fasciitis.

Heel spur is more commonly noticed in certain types of people, depending upon their physical condition and body stamina. Following types of people face the risk of heel spur:

• People who are overweight. This condition allows people to put more weight and pressure on the feet and heels
• People having a flat foot. This condition causes collapse of the foot while walking
• People having high arches. If such people stretch their fascia beyond the normal level, they can face problems
• People wearing foot wear for long hours without properly choosing the one that fits them properly
• People who over use their heels and suddenly involve themselves in high activity levels
• Tarsal tunnel syndrome

Similar to the hand syndrome called the carpal tunnel syndrome, this syndrome causes a tunnel in the back of heel bone which leads to pinching and irritation

• Stress fractures

Caused by calcaneus, it is not uncommon to find people suffering from heel pain due to stress fractures. Especially, athletes should be aware and careful of such fractures.

• Posterior heel pain

Symptoms for this pain are observed behind your foot. It can be caused due to Achilles tendonitis or due to retrocalcaneal bursitis.

Checking with the Doctor:

While checking with your doctor, you should make sure that you describe him the right signs of the heel pain. Some of the sings that you should definitely talk about are:

• Problem in walking properly with the affected side
• Excessive heel pain during night hours or while taking rest
• Consistent occurrence of heel pain
• Swelling of the heels or the back area of the foot
• Infection or fever due to swelling of foot