You notice a nagging pain in your foot when walking for a few minutes. It could be at the heel, around the ankle area, or along the underside of the foot itself. You get it all the time and it’s become a normal part of your life. It’s so “normal” to you that you’ve entered the habit of ignoring the pain altogether. You know it’s there, but you’re happy to just let it be and accept that you’ve got foot pain.
Look, your mental resilience is great, but ignoring nagging foot pain is never a good idea. To be honest, ignoring any type of chronic pain is not smart – if something keeps hurting, there’s a strong chance something might be wrong. Take a moment to listen to your body and figure out where the foot pain stems from, allowing you to find the right solutions for long-term relief.
Ignorance is not bliss in this situation – here’s why it’s never advised to ignore nagging foot pain:
The pain will gradually get more debilitating
Your physical health should constantly be a top priority. It’s something you should focus on at all times in life; if you’re physically healthy, most aspects of life are easier. Simple things like walking to the shop or carrying kids around become a lot simpler. That’s why it’s never good to ignore the pain in your feet – the longer you leave it, the worse it gets.
What begins as a slight nagging pain can become excruciating. It might reach a point where you’re unable to walk without assistance. Depending on where the pain stems from, you might struggle to walk up a flight of stairs or even drive a car!
All types of pain throughout the body are likely to get worse if you keep ignoring them and doing things to make the pain worse. The trouble with foot pain lies in where it is on your body. It’s a body part you use every single day without fail. You need to walk around, meaning this body part gets put under more and more stress. Eventually, the pain will get considerably worse if you ignore any treatment possibilities.
Speak to a professional and get your feet looked at by specialists. Sometimes, a quick bit of rest & recovery is all that’s required to ease the pain. This may involve putting your feet in a foot bath at the end of the day or using a foot massaging tool. Take action before the nagging pain takes you off your feet for a long time!
Treating foot pain is easier when it’s less severe
Many types of foot pain exist and they’re all fairly easy to treat when tackled in the earliest possible stages. Ignoring your pain makes it get worse, which also makes it harder to treat. As noted above, rest & recovery is usually the aim of the game for most types of foot pain. You could also do some stretching and strengthening exercises of the muscles in and around your foot/ankle.
Plantar fasciitis is the most common form of chronic foot pain out there. It affects your heel more than the foot itself and stems from inflammation in the fascia around that area. Luckily, it’s also one of the easiest foot pains to treat – when looked at early on. Stretching the Achilles tendon, strengthening your calf muscles, and icing the area will all lead to quick and long-term results.
However, leave plantar fasciitis untreated for too long and it gets beyond the realms of “DIY home fixes”. Many orthopedic surgeons have performed something called “heel spur surgery” on patients with plantar fasciitis. The pain and inflammation are so bad, causing problems in the heel bone itself. Rather than doing a few simple exercises and stretches at home, you’re now getting operated on.
You’ll end up ruining your shoes
This might sound like a funning thing to complain about, but nagging foot pain could make you ruin your shoes. It comes down to the way you walk when you’re in pain. Ignoring the pain means you’re likely to subconsciously change the placement of your feet on the ground. As such, you may put more pressure on the outside of your foot – or possibly the inside depending on where the pain is. For heel pain, you may walk more on your toes, putting pressure on the front of your foot instead.
As well as probably leading to more foot pain, this puts extra pressure on different parts of the shoes you’re wearing. Have you ever wondered why the seams on one side of your sneakers start wearing thin all the time? Or, maybe you noticed the front end gets easily damaged and wears down. If you’re favoring your heel to avoid pain in your toes, then the heel wears down too!
You’re running through loads of pairs of shoes every year because you’re ignoring foot pain. Get it looked at so you can make the necessary adjustments and avoid over-compensating in different ways when you walk. Your shoes (and bank balance) will thank you.
Problems can occur further up your legs
Lastly, ignoring foot pain is bad because it often leads to more pain further up your legs – most notably in your knee and hip joints. This links to what we spoke about with ruining your shoes because you change the way you walk. If you’re putting extra pressure or focusing on certain areas of your feet to avoid triggering foot pain, this leads to more stress on muscles higher up.
These muscles connect to your knee and can cause complications there – which also triggers complications in the muscles connecting the knee to the hip! You start a terrible biomechanical chain reaction, leading to pain in other areas of your body aside from your feet. Treat the feet and these problems won’t occur!
Nobody likes admitting when something is wrong. You don’t want to see a specialist and you don’t want to make a big deal out of your foot pain. Hopefully this post has shown why it’s never a good idea to ignore the pain in your feet. You may think you can live with it, but so many problems will happen if you don’t get your feet checked and treat the pain ASAP.
