Heel pain can be caused by several factors including trauma, overexertion, poor foot structure, ill-fitting shoes and conditions such as heel spurs, stress fractures, peristalsis, plantar fasciitis, inferior calcaneal Bursitis, Bursitis of the fascia, nerve entrapment, arthritis, or systemic disease.

The most common cause of heel pain seen in our offices and treated by our team of sports medicine podiatry specialists (in athletes as well as the general population) is plantar fasciitis.

Did you know that the dynamic relationship between the foot’s arch, bones, ligaments, and muscles creates the ability to absorb up to four hundred times the body’s weight? Or that the body converts all of this force into functional movement (walking, running, jumping)?  It is for all the above reasons (and more) that having strong feet and ankles is critical for optimal sports performance and injury prevention.

If you ask anyone who follows basketball, they’ll tell you that the game has changed so much.  The biggest change is that it has become a positionless game in recent years.  Centers are dribbling and passing more, and guards are posturing big moves and scoring more than they facilitate.  So probably one of the biggest factors when choosing your basketball shoe is your style of play as well as your position.

We often think of knee pain as something only adults suffer from, but knee pain also hits teens and preteens who are active in sports.

Pain in the front of the knee and around the kneecap is one of the most common complaints. Knee pain in these age groups can be caused by overuse, an imbalance in muscle strength and flexibility, or a growth-related disease called Osgood-Schlatter disease.

A recent study showed that cheerleading was ranked 16th among sports with the highest number of injuries. And, unlike other sports, cheerleading is a year-round activity, so cheerleaders practice and perform longer without as much of an off-season as other sports, making them more prone to developing overuse injuries.

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When your child comes home from sports practice, do they often complain of pain in their foot, ankle, knee, leg, hip, or lower back? Does the pain go away after resting, only to return once they start being active again?

Flatfoot is common in both children and adults.  When this deformity occurs in children, it is referred to as pediatric flatfoot.  Although there are various forms of flatfoot, they all share one characteristic - partial or total collapse of the arch.

Certainly, foot pain is enough to make you irritable. But did you know that foot symptoms are an indicator that you are suffering from a postural problem? If you're like 80% of the population, you suffer from regular or occasional hip, back, and neck pain, most of which can be traced to a malfunction in the feet.

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Knee pain is one of the top five running injuries impacting up to 2.5 million runners in the United States. There are many features of this common malady, some of which remain obscure. Several risk factors have been cited over the years.

While the season and routine practice sessions have concluded, the off-season is an opportunity to focus on weak areas and strengthen them before the new season begins. Improving performance during the off-season has many benefits and is key for continued athletic growth.

A recent study suggests that some workers can walk as much as 1,632 miles a year on the job. That's approximately the distance between Miami, Florida and Portland, Maine. Some common complaints from members of foot-intensive occupations are heel pain, arch pain, toe pain, ankle pain, calluses, corns, and foot deformities such as bunions and spurs. These workers may also suffer from knee, leg, hip, and lower back pain as a result of their jobs.

People often confuse flexibility and mobility, however, they are not as similar as most people would think. Flexibility is lengthening the muscles where mobility focuses on range of motion and joints being able to move freely.

May is Arthritis Awareness Month and a time for us to share some statistics about Arthritis to help raise awareness, as well as shed some light on the most common form of arthritis Osteoarthritis (OA), which affects millions of people globally. Some folks call it "wear and tear" arthritis or degenerative joint disease. With OA, the cartilage in a joint starts to break down, and the underlying bone begins to change. These changes usually happen slowly and get worse over time.

If your child is not participating in sports or other physical activities, the reason could be that they are suffering from pain due to a foot, ankle, or secondary condition. May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month designed to promote the importance of physical activity, physical fitness, and sports participation.

May is Posture Awareness Month and a great reminder of the importance of good posture when it comes to having a balanced structure. Conversely, poor posture can result in misalignment which can cause lower body pain, starting at your feet.

It is because your feet are the foundation of your body, that they take a literal pounding……. day in and day out. What most people don’t realize is that of the 206 bones that make up the human body, 52 of them are found in the feet (26 in each foot). And, to support all of those bones, did you know that there are also over one hundred ligaments and approximately thirty muscles and tendons involved in the movement of your feet?

A balanced structure means a reduced chance of injury, improved stability, increased confidence, endurance, and overall athletic performance. That said, it is clear how important it is to take care of your structure - especially your feet which are the body’s foundation.

Growing pains are a myth. Although some pediatricians may say that they will go away, the truth is that “growing pains” are the result of real conditions that need to be treated. The most common conditions that are mislabeled as “growing pains” are shin splints or flatfeet, both of which can easily be corrected and treated with custom orthotics.