Pain in the foot when walking

Pain in the foot when walking is the most frequent symptom that patients complain about. It can be general, diffuse, exciting the entire foot or limited to certain and minor areas of the feet. Diffuse pain in the foot when walking is sometimes associated with stress or strain.

The human foot is the lowest part of the lower limb. Part of the foot, which is in direct contact with the earth's surface, is called a foot or sole. The foot has three points of the bony support, two of which are located in the anterior part of the foot and one in the back. The rear is called the heel, and the front, which consists of 5 fingers, is toeded. The toes include foot phalanxes. The bones of the foot extend from the very tips of the fingers to the heel and unite directly into the body of the foot. The base of the foot is represented by 26 bones. The most important function is spring. The special structure of the foot (longitudinal and transverse arch) makes it possible to soften the load on the lower limbs, spine and pelvis. If there is a flattening of the longitudinal (in more rare cases - transverse) arch due to the weakness of the ligaments and muscles there is deformation of the foot - physicians diagnose "flat feet". Depending on the specificity of the lesion of the arch of the foot, the transverse and longitudinal flat feet differ. Probably the combination of these forms with each other and with other types of deformities of the foot.

Foot pain associated with exercise, without any additional clinical symptoms, may be an early indication of stop failure associated with calcium deficiency (osteopathy) with rickets, osteomalacia, and osteoporosis. Surprisingly, this painfulness of each bone when pressing on them with a finger.

Prolonged bed rest with different ailments also causes diffuse pain in the foot when walking, which is associated with a deficiency of the muscle and ligament apparatus. The same kind of pain caused by insufficiency results from a rapid increase in total body weight or a prolonged heavy load.

In particular, severe pain in the feet and almost complete loss of ability to support, along with changes in the inflammatory and trophic nature, are accompanied by a disease such as osteoporosis, which occurs after diseases and injuries of bones, soft tissues and joints of the foot and ankle. Severe diffuse pain in the feet, long or paroxysmal, occurs with organic and functional vascular lesions.

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The causes of pain in the foot when walking

1. Pain in the foot during walking can cause arthritis, impaired blood supply, nerve compression between the fingers, deformity of the bones of the metatarsal and other causes. Often, this pain in the foot during walking causes nerve damage or age changes in the feet, which are called metatarsalgia.
2. Pain in the foot when walking due to age-related changes. The older the person, the more essential it decreases the protective function of the fatty layer in the region of the heads of metatarsal bones, which acts as a shock absorber. This condition can cause compression of bags in the area of the heads of the bones of the metatarsals, which inevitably leads to an inflammatory process in them - bursitis.
3. Rheumatoid arthritis, or inflammation of the joints, can also cause pain that occurs in the feet when walking.
4. The cause of pain in the feet that appears when walking, may be a benign enlargement of the nerve tissue - the neuroma, the surrounding nerve. As a rule, the neuroma is observed in the bases of the third or fourth toes (the so-called Morton's neuroma), although it can also occur in the region of other fingers. As a rule, neuromas are observed on one foot and often in women. Usually at an early stage the neuroma manifests itself as a minor pain in the area of 3-4 toes and sometimes a feeling of tingling or burning. The pain in the feet becomes worse when walking, if you wear a certain type of shoes, especially with a narrow toe. During the progression of the development of the disease, tingling acquires a permanence, regardless of what type of shoes the person applying for the complaint is wearing. Moreover, it may appear that there is a stone in the foot.
5. The pain in the foot during walking is felt in injuries of a traumatic nature: with dislocation of metatarsal bones or dislocation of the Lisfranc joint, dislocations of the tarsus or dislocation in the joint of the Chopar, subtalar dislocation of the foot, dislocation of the foot in the ankle).
6. The foot with the developed flat feet lies on the surface with the entire area of the sole and no longer performs the spring function. For this reason, there are fatigue and pain in the feet and legs when walking, running, standing. Acquired platypodia (congenital happens very rarely) often develops as a result of various overloads of feet, especially during the period when the body grows. Even in adulthood, flat feet often develop as a result of prolonged stay on the feet (for example, hairdressers, sellers). Flat feet can also provoke prolonged weight lifting and overweight. Flattening, having a traumatic nature, develops, as a rule, after a fracture of the foot bones, ankle. If a fracture of the bones of the lower limb has occurred, the flatfoot also often develops - on the side that is opposite to the fracture.
7. Erythromelalgia. This disease affects the legs, usually the feet. It is often observed among men of mature age. The main symptoms are redness of the foot and burning pain. The disease usually occurs after the limb is heated or its forced position. Pain can be alleviated by the cold or raising the affected limb. This ailment accompanies other diseases, for example, hypertension, reaction to a drug, polycythemia or thrombocytosis. It can be observed with myeloproliferative diseases, for example, with leukemia. But there can be no name for any connection with other diseases. The cause of this ailment is still unknown. Burning in the extremities is most often a response to heat. There may also be pain in the foot when walking. The affected area becomes red.
8. Pain in the foot when walking also appears as a result of the nail growing into the soft tissues of the finger, and also as a result of bursitis of the thumb, calluses and plantar warts. The overwhelming cause of these ailments is manifested in the wearing of incorrectly matched shoes.