Welcome to my blog! My name is Geoff. I have always been a sporty kind of chap. I love to go long distance running and I also play football and rugby. One day after a long run, I had a terrible pain in my foot. I thought I had just been overdoing it a little bit, so I decided to rest up. A week later, it was no better. I was still in a lot of pain and had to drop out of a couple of football matches. My doctor sent me to see a podiatrist who examined my foot and explained I had damaged a ligament. The podiatrist helped me to get back to full health. I decided to start this blog to explain the importance of good foot care.
As you age, it seems that your body is constantly plagued by aches and pains. From occasional headaches to lower back pain, some of these issues come and go whereas others can be blamed on your lifestyle such as poor posture, inadequate amounts of sleep, being sedentary and so on. Nonetheless, when you develop an ache that has lingered for more than a few days, you should be concerned about an underlying issue causing it.
Leg pain is one ache that adults will contend with from time to time and this is unsurprising, considering that your legs bear the brunt of carrying your weight every day. Whether the pain can be linked to a change in your routine, for example picking up a new sport, or it happened spontaneously, it is important to discern whether it is serious enough to warrant and visit the podiatrist.
How can you determine if your leg pain requires medication attention?
Although pain tolerance will vary from one person to another, living with an incessant ache can impair your quality of life. Thus, to be on the safe side, it is best to determine if rest will facilitate faster healing or if seeing a podiatrist is the best course of action.
Firstly, establish how long you have been afflicted by the leg pain. Individuals that have been suffering from it for days or even weeks should be concerned about an underlying injury and this is best attended to by a podiatrist.
Secondly, determine if the pain is impeding leg function. If you are having trouble walking, kneeling or bending your leg, seeing a podiatrist will be necessary so that they can restore function to the affected limb. Lastly, inspect your leg for any physical changes that could be indicative of trauma, for example, colour changes, swelling and so on.
How can a podiatrist help with chronic leg pain?
The first thing you should know is that pain medication is not the obvious course of treatment. Before the podiatrist can prescribe anything, they will need to figure out what is causing it in the first place. Generally speaking, there are four main reasons why you would develop this issue which includes biomechanical causes, such as poor gait, excessive exertion particularly when working out or training, ill-fitting shoes and trauma.
Once the podiatrist identifies the underlying cause, they can then address the accompanying symptoms. A few of the ways that they can do this is by relieving tightness in the affected leg via physical therapy, teaching to exercises to strengthen and condition the leg muscles, prescribing better footwear as well improving the biomechanical aspects that caused the chronic pain.
For more information, contact a podiatrist today.
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