Heel Spurs Treatment and Prevention

Heel spurs are considered a self-limited condition, which means that by making small alterations in your lifestyle and regular routines you can often control the condition. The goal is to relieve pain, reduce friction and transfer pressure from your sensitive foot areas. Failure to see improvements after conservative treatments may make surgery your only option.

Rest and activity modification are among the most important things you can do to help recover from your heel spurs. Ice and compression will help to ease your pain and discomfort from inflammation. A compression brace is the best option to receive this type of treatment.

Other conservative treatments:

Properly sized comfortable footwear (leave a 1/2 inch space between longest toe and inside of shoe) with significant arch support and motion control. Also, avoid running around barefoot, or on hard and uneven ground.

Corrective footwear, orthotics (insoles and arch supports) or other foot devices (walking casts, night splints) provide support and alignment.

Cushioning or supportive items, such as taping or donut-shaped heel cushions protect, reposition your foot, and relieve pressure pain.

Exercises that stretch and strengthen your foot (flexor digitorum brevis and quadratus plantae), ankle (achilles tendon) and leg muscles (soleus, gastrocnemius, hamstring) keep you balanced and flexible.

Gentle foot massage helps relax tissues; physio therapy, chiropractic care, reflexology and acupressure are effective in relieving tension, strengthening your foot and helping with alignment.

A balanced diet keeps your weight maintained.

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy, corticosteroid or Botox injections have been used, but must be administered by a medical professional and involve some risks. Steroid injections have been known to weaken the tissues and cause ruptures.

Pain and anti-inflammatory medications can help relieve some aches and pains.

Heel or plantar fasciitis surgery (endoscopic plantar fasciotomy, open heel-spur fasciotomy) helps to relieve pressure, reduce pain and remove the calcium spur from the heel area. However, surgery is not a guarantee and there can be complications. If the plantar fascia is not repaired when the heel spur is removed, it is likely it will return.

Recovery from heel spurs can take between 6 weeks - 18 months, depending on the severity of your condition and your commitment to proper rehabilitation. The more dedicated you are with your treatments, the faster you will see successful, long-lasting results.

Therapeutic Products

Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy

You can help your body repair your plantar fasciitis, heel spur, arch pain or tendon injury by boosting the natural healing process using an Inferno Wrap™. The Inferno Wrap's patented design delivers the most effective Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy you can find. By stimulating the flow of blood to your foot you are increasing the amount of healing oxygen and nutrients to the area. Unfortunately, we need to rest in order to heal and this decreases the blood flow throughout our bodies. Since you can't work your foot without danger of further injury, you need to stimulate the blood flow another way. Our innovative Inferno Wrap™ gives you the best Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy available. The Inferno Wrap™ creates energy waves that stimulate blood flow while you rest by penetrating through the outer layers of your foot. The energy waves reach deep into your foot reducing your pain as they heal the inner tissue.

The Inferno Wrap™ provides effective, non-invasive, non-addictive pain relief with no side effects. By treating your heel spur or plantar fascia in the morning before stepping out of bed, you will warm the area and prepare it for use during the day with less risk on re-injury. When your injury has healed somewhat and it comes time for more aggressive rehabilitation, stretching and activity, Blood Flow Stimultation Therapy warms the tissues in the injured area which increases range of motion and allows for a safer stretch with less risk of reinjury.

Therapeutic Ultrasound

Ultrasound Therapy is also a great tool for pain prevention of heel spurs, plantar fasciitis and tendon injuries, and having a therapeutic ultrasound device at home can be a powerful and convenient treatment tool. If you are suffering from a heel spur or have an injured plantar fascia or are recovering from a tendon injury, using ultrasound on a regular basis before your activity or throughout the day will help relax the area, diminish pain and inflammation, soften scar tissue and contribute greatly to the healing of your injury.

Therapeutic Ultrasound warms and massages your soft tissue giving you three primary benefits. First, it increases blood flow in the treated area which speeds your body's natural healing process. Second, it reduces swelling and edema which are the main sources of pain. Third, ultrasound softens existing scar tissue and minimizes the build up of new scar tissue resulting in reduced pain while healing and greater flexibility once healing is complete.

Eucalyptus...
It's in our Gel!

Ultrasound can also be used to administer therapeutic medicines into the body. This is a process known as phonophoresis. Ultrasound with Phonophoresis is rapidly becoming more popular than Ultrasound Therapy alone.

Peppermint...
It's in our gel too!

Our MendMeShop Lavender Infusion Gel is the only topical therapeutic gel that is also a Phonophoretic Ultrasound Gel. It is made with natural medical ingredients including eucalyptus, peppermint, Bulgarian lavender and menthol. These effective ingredients have anesthetic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, decongestant, and circulatory stimulant properties. When applied topically and massaged into the skin, MendMeShop Lavender Infusion Gel relieves pain and speeds healing without any side-effects.

Freezie Wrap™ Cold Compression Therapy

Our cold compression wraps work by interrupting and slowing nerve and cell function in your foot. Once blood vessels are damaged they can no longer carry oxygenated blood to the damaged tissue and therefore cells begin to break-down. The deep cold provided by our cold compression wraps slows cell function thereby reducing cellular break-down. Furthermore, because the cold wraps serve to numb the nerves, the wraps also reduce pain!

With the non-migrating gel that holds the cold for your cold therapy, our Freezie Wraps are the best. We have noticed over time that our customers are so fond of our cold wraps that they are frequently coming back and ordering a second one - this way they can cool one while wearing the other. The wraps are becoming very popular with baseball and soccer trainers, and the wraps can be conveniently stored in a cooler for quick application on the field when needed.

Always allow the injured area to return to normal body temperature between hot and cold treatments by waiting 60-90 minutes before applying a different therapy.

See Plantar Fasciitis for more detailed information.