5 Secrets to Foot and Ankle Tendonitis

One of the most common foot and ankle injuries is tendinitis (also called tendonitis or tendinopathy). Tendinitis occurs when the tissue that connects muscles to bone becomes inflamed. This can be caused by excessive exercise, a sudden increase in activity level, or poor arch support of your shoes—or any combination of these things! Other causes include: running on hard surfaces instead of soft ones like grass; walking too much without breaks or wearing arch supportive shoes that fit properly; not warming up before exercise; working out at high intensities with improper form. Do you want to know how to treat your foot or ankle tendinitis? This blog post will teach you everything there is about this condition. We’ll talk about home remedies and treatments as well! Ready for some great advice on treating tendinitis? We will also provide helpful exercises patients can do to help relieve their pain as well as products they can buy to treat themselves more effectively with less time out of work!

#1. Proper Arch-Supportive Shoes

Arch supporting shoes are the best way to keep your foot and ankle tendinitis at bay. Consider the fact that these tendons are responsible for holding your arch up. Imagine wearing flat shoes and asking your already bruised tendons to hold up your arch! Ouch!!! Now imagine you wear arch supporting shoes, your tendons are smiling already! Give those tendons time to heal!

The best arch supports for these types of injuries are custom-made orthotics. Custom orthotic specialists will take your specific needs into consideration to create the perfect shoe insert that is tailored to you and your foot type!

If you don’t have time or money to go see a specialist, that’s okay! Purchase inserts in the store from brands like SuperFeet, PowerStep, WalkHero – they are specifically created for people with plantar fasciitis (another form of chronic inflammation similar to tendinitis).

#2. Inflammatory Control!

Getting your tendons out of the inflammatory phase of healing is the best way to expedite recovery. This means icing and resting as much as possible.

You can ice your foot for 15 minutes at a time, two to four times per day – make sure you do not exceed 15 minutes per session to avoid frostbite. You don’t want the coldness of the icepack to actually cause more inflammation in your already inflamed tendon!

Home remedies for inflammation include hydrotherapy such as soaking in warm water mixed with Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) baths for 20 minutes every day; drinking lots of fluids daily including plenty of cold liquids like ice tea or popsicles; elevating your legs when sitting most times during the day; and using a cold compress on the inflamed area.

Afterwards, try doing some gentle stretching with a towel wrapped around the ball of your foot while sitting down. This will release lactic acid build-up from exercising earlier in the day or throughout the week. If this doesn’t work well for you, speak with one of our doctors about other stretches they recommend specifically designed for tendinitis.

#3. Anti-inflammatory Creams and Medications

There are also pharmacological ways of decreasing inflammation. Voltaren is a commonly recommended cream to apply to areas of inflammation. These have been shown to be effective for superficial inflammation such as tendinitis. Tendinitis sufferers can also find some relief by taking an over the counter medication like ibuprofen or Naproxen to relieve inflammation and pain, but these do not have as strong of a therapeutic effect on acute cases of tendinitis. If you’re looking for more long-term relief, a doctor may prescribe Celebrex or ibuprofen to help reduce inflammation. Finally, if inflammation is severe and you need prescription strength anti-inflammatories, ask your doctor if things like steroids are right for you. Depending on the exact tendon involved, a steroid injection along the tendon sheath can be beneficial or harmful. Ask your podiatrist to help you determine which is best for your situation.

#4 Compression and Elevation

Compression and elevation of the extremity is great for reducing inflammation and expedite healing of tendinitis! Be sure to use an ankle or calf compression wrap, a Thigh Compression Wrap, and/or a Compression Sock of your choosing for this. Elevating your legs can also help reduce pain and swelling. Compression helps draw out the used up toxins and blood in your feet and legs and drain them back into circulation to be cleaned and recirculated!

#5 Physical Therapy

Talk to your physician about physical therapy for tendinitis of the foot and ankle that focuses on decreasing pain by strengthening muscles surrounding the tendon. These exercises might include range of motion exercises like toe raises which activate calf muscles while stretching out tight plantar fascia tissues around the heel pad – this will decrease tension at both ends of the tendon. Physical therapy for tendinitis may include hydrotherapy like ultrasound or ice to help reduce inflammation, laser treatment which is a more recent form of rehabilitation that utilizes pulses of light on injured areas to stimulate healing in soft tissues like muscles, ligaments and tendons.

These are all the ways of expediting your recovery from pesky foot and ankle tendinitis! Visit us today for more information! NextGen Foot – Glendale and Pasadena Podiatrist. Thank you for reading!