Foot Pain In The Morning? [Causes, Symptoms & Best Treatment]
Foot Pain In The Morning: This pain is caused due to chronic inflammation of the ligaments in your foot. Treatment has 90% success, so don’t worry!
Table of Contents
Heel Pain Causes: Picture & Photo Gallery
Look:
- One of the top causes of heel pain is plantar fasciitis. This is damage to a ligament that holds your heel to your toes.
- Another root cause of heel pain has flat feet.
- There are also photos of heel spurs that can occur to the bottom of your heel (plantar fascia insertion) and the back of your heel (Achilles tendon insertion).
- Baxter’s nerve entrapment can also happen at the bottom of the heel.
- An underlying cause is an overpronated flatfoot or an over a supinated high arched foot.
- A plantar fibroma is a thick nodule that can occur within your plantar fascia ligament and contribute to plantar fasciitis.
- This can lead to the formation of a heel stress fracture( AKA calcaneus stress fracture.)
Please click on the gallery for a guided tour through heel pain conditions!
Foot Pain In The Morning Overview:
- Foot pain in the morning is similar to delayed onset muscle soreness after a big workout.
- At the bottom of your foot you have a planar fascia ligament, your posterior tibial tendon, your Achilles tendon and other ligaments.
- As you get really sore during the day, a small little microscopic tears develop within the structures.
- It’s bad enough eventually a spur can develop on the bottom of the back of your heal.
- This can be a very challenging chronic problem for many people, but keep reading to find out exactly what to do!
What Is Foot Pain In The Morning?
Foot pain ins the morning is almost always due to chronic inflammation.
- Inflammation is an attempt to re-organize your foot tissue.
- It onsets during sitting & sleeping.
- This is when the “remodeling cells can do their work”.
- These cells attempt to repair the “stretch damage” done throughout the day.
- But as you get up and move around, your blood flushes them away.
- This “soreness” is the body breaking down the tissue to try to rebuild it stronger.
- But as you keep walking and standing every day, it never catches up!
Causes:
This is almost always due to overuse & stress of the foot ligaments:
- The connective tissue holding together the bottom of your foot is called the plantar fascia.
- The plantar fascia becomes stretched throughout the day.
- As you get older & heavier, your feet get flatter & more spread out.
- This places more strain on the soft tissue at the bottom of your foot.
- It essentially stretches out like an elastic everyday and does not have time to rebuild itself.
Other Minor Causes:
- Plantar Fasciitis.
- Pain in the Heel Bone.
- Bottom Foot Pain in Arch and Heel.
- Pain in Back Heel of Foot.
- Painful Foot Arch.
- The Outside of the Foot.
- Sprained Arch.
- Cramps in the Arch.
- Bruised Heel.
- Stone Bruise.
Symptoms:
The most common symptoms of plaintiff fasciitis include:
- Pain in the morning when you wake up.
- Delayed onset muscle soreness after resting for a long period of time.
- Pain after getting up and moving while sitting on the couch.
- Pain while driving in the heel.
- Worsening pain as you stand during the day on hard surfaces.
- Worsening pain while standing barefoot.
- Worsening pain with unsupportive shoes.
- Numbness burning and tingling in the heel.
- Sore achy throbbing in the heel that gets worse while standing during the day.
Risk Factors:
What are the Risk Factors for Foot Pain After Sitting Or Sleeping?
- People with flat foot.
- Heavier people
- Foot shoes.
- More in barefoot walkers.
- More in people without arch support.
- More in flatfoot people.
Is Foot Pain After Sitting Dangerous?
- Over time the condition becomes more an more painful.
- It can limit mobility due to pain.
- After decades a heel spur will develop.
- This heel spur is due to the ligaments & muscles pulling on the heel.
- The heel bone attempts to heel and create more bone.
- But this bone is gradually stretched out & may make the condition worse.
How Common Is Foot Pain After Sitting Or Sleeping?
- 15% of the people in the world have this condition.
- This means almost 1 billion people alive today will have or had this condition!
- It is perhaps the most common foot condition I see on a daily basis.
- It is very well researched & very treatable.
- There are many effective treatments.
- The right treatment will have about a 90% success rate!
Treatment Of Painful Feet In The Morning:
1)Make 100% Sure Of Sore Feet In The Morning:
- Confirm that your heel or arch pain is plantar fasciitis.
- Make sure this is inflammation & not a tumor or broken bone.
- Don’t spend your hard earned money or time battling something that you don’t even have!
2)Get Rid Of The Morning Pain & Hurt:
- Stopping the hurting is the most critical step.
- The correct treatment has been shown to be 90% effective.
- Once the pain is gone, making sure it stays away is the next step.
3) Control The Painful Feet In The Morning Long Term:
- Abnormal bio-mechanics or unusual stress on your foot is usually to blame.
- Get some good arch supports.
- Get the correct pair of shoes.
- Make sure you do the right stretches.
- Make sure you do the correct strengthening exercises.
- Identify any chronic inflammation causing agents!
4) Extensive Morning Foot Pain Treatment:
- This is usually only needed in 5% of people.
- These options include surgery, injections & advanced options.
- Find out which ones work the best & which ones do not.
5)Jump To the Actual Treatment Guide:
Only one thing left for you to do!
Best Heel Pain Products:
- There are usually two phases to treating plantar fasciitis pain.
- The two phases of treatment include controlling the acute inflammation, and correcting the biomechanics which led to the problem in the first place.
- If the tendons and ligaments are inflamed, they are almost frozen in place and cannot function properly.
- Once the inflammation is decreased, we need to correct the bio-mechanical causes to ensure that they can never become over worked and inflamed again!
- This doesn’t matter whether it’s plantar fasciitis, plantar fibroma, sore bottom of foot, or even Achilles tendon pain. Treatment is all roughly very similar.
Plantar Fasciitis or Achilles Tendonitis Inflammation:
Massage & Ice Products:
- Ice is the an excellent option that can be safe for almost everyone.
- There is some debate whether icing is worth doing, but for chronic pain this can help limit the need for medications and keep your options open.
- This works great for your arch, less for the ball of the foot.
- The more muscle and ligament tissue there is, the better ice will work there.
Menthol Based Gels:
- Biofreeze is one of our favorites.
- These gels have been studied to work 2x as long as ice.
- This works great for the ball of the foot.
- This can be very effective for bottom of the heel and Achilles tendon sore regions.
Massage Sticks:
- These can work great for loosening your muscles.
- This allows less tightness and pressure on the ball of your foot.
- This is very effective for the arch, the gastrocnemius or calf muscle and for the hamstring and thigh muscles.
- This also works very well for the gluteus muscles if you are having butt cheek or hip pain.
Remove the Plantar Fascia or Achilles Tendon Stress:
- The key is to prevent future pain.
- This means keeping you active while keeping stress off of your plantar fascia tendon. This will prevent future re-injury and development of plantar fasciitis.
- If you can get rid of the pain and swelling, this will let you start walking normally.
- If you can walk normally, the vast majority of your pain should gradually start to go away.
- The best way to ensure that your plantar fascia, foot and ankle ligaments are not overworked is to support them.
- The best way to support them is to use great orthotics and great shoes.
- Some people may also need to rely on supportive ankle braces and other supportive modalities.
The Best Heel Pain & Plantar Fasciitis Shoes:
- Getting a great supportive pair of shoes will make sure that there is pressure removed from the heel and plantar fascia region.
- This is especially important if you have plantar fasciitis, heel spur pain or Achilles tendonitis.
- Consider shoes combined with a good supportive orthotic for best pain relief!
- The following link will show you what our favorites are.
Best Heel Pain & Plantar Fasciitis Orthotics:
- These are our recommended orthotics for plantar fasciitis.
- Custom orthotics can work very well, but they should not be a first line of treatment.
- There are different types for different shoes.
- Women’s shoes usually need a less bulky orthotic, but allow for less correction.
- A full length orthotic requires a running shoe, boot or comfortable walking/dress shoe.
- We recommend doing everything you can to get a good supportive shoe that can fit a full length orthotic.
- This is the best way to maximize your orthotics for great results.
Best Full Length Orthotics:
- These will only work in wider shoes or a good supportive running shoe.
- This will not work in sandals, flats or most women’s dress shoes.
Best Dress Shoe Orthotics:
- These are a great choice for dress orthotics.
Best 3/4 Length Orthotics:
- These are great options for women’s dress shoes and thinner shoes.
- These are not the most supportive pair of orthotics.
Get A Great Dynamic Stretch:
- It is possible to stretch on your own, but these products can also really help!
- This will take pressure off of the ball of your foot.
- We personally prefer this method of stretching.
Get A Great Static Stretch:
- These devices are great for stretching while you are resting.
- This will also help take pressure off of the ball of your foot.
- This works great for plantar fasciitis.
- It can be used while watching TV or at night time.
Best Heel Compression Brace:
- A good compression brace can stabilize your foot from turning outward.
- This prevents your foot from pronated.
- Pronated foot will turn your foot outward in your foot will rub on the outside of the shoe.
- For many of her patients this has solved their pain and is very comfortable to wear inside your shoe.
- This solves both pain and outward pronation for a relatively low cost.
Best Heel Stability Brace:
- Stability brace goes little bit further than the compression brace to stop your foot from turning out.
- This takes pressure off of your heel and plantar fascia.
- At the same time this is a little bit bulkier and does not affect every shoe.
- We find people are little bit happier trying the compression brace before the stability brace.
Heel Injury:
- If you think you might have a broken heel, a calcaneal stress fracture or something of similar severity, these products might help!
- Always remember to see a foot and ankle specialist like a podiatrist if you are having plantar fasciitis or more severe pain!
Plantar Fascia Tear, Broken Heel Bone, Achilles Tendon Tear:
- If you have a traumatic injury such as a torn plantar fascia ligament, calcaneus stress fracture, heel fracture or insertional Achilles tendon injury: consider protecting your foot!
- The best way to do this is of course to see your podiatrist and get evaluated with an x-ray, ultrasound and potentially even an MRI or CT scan.
- If you are unable to do so it may benefit you to be in a cast, fractured boot, or even keep the weight off of it with a rolling knee scooter or other protective devices.
- We as podiatrists frequently take patients off work for very long period of time when they suffer a traumatic injury, unfortunately there is no other way around us in labor jobs.
- If you have a sit down job there are ways to get people back to work quicker, but this can be very difficult otherwise.
Heel Injury Boot Treatment:
- There are pros and cons to using a boot to treat your heel injury. If you are immobilized too long the cons are that you will gradually become stiff and overworked to your other leg. The Pros are that you injured heel will hopefully have a chance to gradually heal!
- Our favorite fracture boots and their supplies:
Offloading and Scooter treatment:
- These are favorite knee scooters and walking devices: