Osteophyte is an unpleasant and rather painful manifestation of the growth of bone tissue in the form of a spike, caused by the pulling effect of a tendon or ligament. For a disease such as heel spur, medication treatment is quite possible if it is not started. We will talk about the causes of occurrence, means of assistance in today's article.
Why disease occurs
When a heel spur is diagnosed, medication treatment implies that the disease has already been detected, for example, through an ultrasound examination or x-ray. The signs of a heel spur are obvious, and despite the fact that the disease develops gradually, visits to the doctor actually occur at the stage when the growths cause significant discomfort when walking. According to the statistics of treatment with fasciitis (inflammation of muscle tissue due to osteophyte), women are more likely to suffer because high-heeled shoes, when the foot abruptly changes from the load positionon some ligaments to a resting position and vice versa, are characteristic of the female sex. Loads on the legs when walking, an active lifestyle are not at all an indicator that osteophyte is excluded. The main condition for its prevention is proper nutrition, uniform alternation of loads on the leg with rest, and timely diagnostics carried out by a specialist.
Asymptomatic course of disease
Microscopic tears, cracks that form during systematic stress on the foot due to uncomfortable shoes, unusual heel height (or its absence after the foot was constantly on the heel) can be treated. How to treat a heel spur medically? Provide rest to the leg, lubricate with any soothing and anti-inflammatory agent, anesthetize and try to give time to the foot when relieved and not load it. Quite different measures should be taken if pain in the heel began to torment due to other causes - infections, injuries, obesity, etc. In this case, the root cause of the problem should be identified and eliminated first, otherwise the use of agents that act directly on tissues (bone, muscle, tendon), will help only for a short time. Their action is based on pain relief and inflammation. It will be even worse to insist on conservative methods without confirming the genesis of the disease. Therefore, before treating a heel spur with medicines, you should make sure that your initiative does not harm: take tests, take an x-ray or ultrasound of the foot.
Signs of a heel spur,when you need to see a doctor
It is not difficult to determine the disease if it is already progressing. First signs:
- Discomfort in the heel when loading the foot, penetrating pain is plantar fasciitis.
- Bone outgrowths on the back of the heel, developing and protruding from under the skin, visually easily diagnosed, cause no less problems - this is a heel spur.
Medicated treatment of heel spurs at home is possible, but self-medication without diagnosis should not be done, if only because different stages of the disease have different purposes, and the fact that one of them will be an effective remedy, the other can aggravate the course disease.
What are the causes of the development of the disease
One of the main causes of spurs is impaired metabolism, which is usually associated with overweight patients. Improper course of carbohydrate metabolism processes in the body leads to the formation of calcium s alts and inflammation of the tissues of the heel tubercle. Experiencing the maximum load during walking, running, jumping, the internal tissues of the foot sometimes receive microtraumas, which, as a result of constant load, do not heal, but are aggravated by new loads. Therefore, the disease often accompanies athletes and athletics enthusiasts. Usually, treatment of heel spurs with medicines is possible even before diagnosis, according to the primary signs: sharp pain inside the foot, inability to step on the heel due to the feeling of a “driven nail”. In such cases, you should not do foot baths, you can not warm up with compresses:this will help in the later stages of the disease, but in the initial stages it can cause swelling and increased pain. That is why, if a heel spur is suspected, medication should be prescribed by a specialist, and self-medication is not recommended.
First of all, we treat the source
Other causes of the disease include flat feet, orthopedic diseases and curvature of the spine (due to unevenly distributed weight on both feet), chronic latent infections (chlamydia, which causes Reiter's syndrome), rheumatic diseases (arthritis, Bechterew's disease, gout). To confirm the diagnosis of "heel spur" (medication treatment can be prescribed only after establishment), you need to pass some tests. They allow you to determine that the disease is really osteopathic in nature, and not another (articular, vertebral) with similar symptoms. With some of them, the load on the feet may not even be so significant, so the treatment of heel spurs with medicines will no longer give a stable effect. In this case, you need to carefully treat the source of the problems.
Heel spur: medication treatment
Reviews on the medical treatment of patients are often positive, because carefully followed instructions from an orthopedist or surgeon at the initial stage of the disease can relieve the painful syndrome and get rid of the symptoms. Non-steroidalanti-inflammatory drugs in the form of capsules, tablets, creams and ointments, for applications and compresses, hormonal preparations in the form of a gel, cream or injections. Combining with massages, which also need to be performed correctly, treatment with such means can remove all pain in a two-week course of use. Ointments and creams of a steroid or non-steroid type are effective. Treatment with medicines has been shown and effectively proven for the disease "heel spur": cinquefoil, bee venom, on the basis of which creams are created to relieve symptoms. Ointments should be applied not periodically with the most intense pain, but three or four times a day, after warming up the sore heel. Their action is manifested as softening of the skin, removal of inflammation, pain relief, improvement of blood supply in the painful area.
Sabelnik
Marsh cinquefoil has long been widely used both internally and externally, and promotes healing and relieves inflammation of a different nature. It is taken as alcoholic tinctures, decoctions and herbal infusions, used topically externally. Its leaves contain many valuable substances that have a pronounced anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect, improve metabolism when taken orally, and help strengthen the body's defenses and immunity. In addition, the saber has no contraindications. Unless pregnant and lactating mothers should resort to saber.
For the treatment of heel spurs, cinquefoil is recognized as one of the best natural remedies. On thethe basis of this natural preparation is an alcohol tincture. The course of treatment is three weeks for oral administration. Based on the tincture of cinquefoil, night compresses are also made on the sore heel using foil or patch. From badger, goose fat or glycerin, a mumiyo tablet and a dessert spoon of such a tincture, they make an ointment that is applied to preheated skin and remains in the form of a compress all night.
Conservative medicine for heel spurs
Allow to relieve the symptoms of the disease and remedies such as:
- Shock wave therapy (SWT) to improve blood circulation. It quickly loosens the bone with pulses.
- X-ray therapy, which has no contraindications, which anesthetizes the localization of the spur.
- Ultrasound that warms up a painful place and accelerates metabolic processes, which contributes to the regeneration of damaged tissues.
- An excellent way to get rid of such a disease as a heel spur is medication treatment: ointments, creams, involving a whole course of treatment, long and effective. Suitable various ointments and creams containing components such as butadione, diclofenac, ibuprofen to relieve inflammation.
- One of the extreme methods, which they try to resort to as little as possible, is surgery, it is necessary only if all other methods have failed.
Types of heel spur treatment
Other methods of conservative treatment include the use of orthopedic insoles, silicone heel pads with a recess or hole at the site of growth localization. This method can be combined with a more traditional method, the effect of a cream or ointment, combined with gentle heel care, will make healing faster and more effective.
In addition, other types of assistance are used, such as patches, warm foot baths, body wraps, warming with paraffin (paraffin therapy), metal foil therapy, mud therapy, laser therapy and drug blockades. Blockades are a tool that should never be used on its own. Injections into the heel of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs can only be trusted by a specialist, otherwise it can only worsen.
