Traditional Chinese medicine believes that heel pain is mostly caused by liver and kidney deficiency, insufficient qi and blood, exogenous wind, cold and dampness, qi stagnation and blood stasis, trauma and strain, which lead to blocked meridians, stagnant qi and blood, and lack of nourishment for tendons and bones, thus causing this disease.
To properly care for your heels, you may wish to try the following 8 tips:
1. Moderate Exercise
Do not let your heels become overly fatigued or attacked by external forces. Do moderate outdoor exercise every day, and try to choose fitness trails when walking or jogging.
Excessive exercise can damage the plantar fascia and aggravate local aseptic inflammatory reactions.
If heel pain occurs after exercise, you should adjust the amount of exercise in time and rest for 3 to 5 days to prevent the misunderstanding of “walking more when the pain is more severe”.
2.Self-Stretching
Stretch the plantar fascia frequently, push the front of the toes against the head of the bed or apply resistance with your hands, and do a slow dorsiflexion (stretching) movement of the toes.
This method can improve the tension of the plantar fascia of the foot, strengthen the anti-strain function, reduce local inflammation, and relieve pain. Do 15 to 20 each time, 2 to 3 times a day.
3.Don’t Stamp Your Feet
With age, aging of the heel bone and the growth of bone spurs are inevitable, but most elderly people can “coexist peacefully” with bone spurs.
If you use extreme “homemade methods” such as stamping your heels, stepping on gravel, and hitting with a health hammer to try to eliminate bone spurs, it may be counterproductive and even aggravate local inflammation and edema, making the pain worse.
4.Reduce Weight Bearing
“Suwen Xuanming Wuqi” says: “Standing for a long time hurts bones, and walking for a long time hurts tendons.” The feet bear most of the weight of the human body. Factors such as heavy weight, frequent weight bearing, long standing, and wearing hard-soled shoes can cause excessive pressure on the heels and damage and edema of the plantar fascia, so you should pay attention to changing these lifestyles.
5.Keep Warm
Whether outdoors or indoors, you should pay attention to preventing your ankles from being exposed to avoid invasion of wind, cold, and dampness, blocking the meridians, causing blood stasis, pain if it is not smooth, and inducing or aggravating the condition.
6.Diet Therapy
In terms of diet, you can often eat high-calcium foods, such as dairy products, soy products, seafood, etc.
In this season, you may wish to eat more mutton and drink some mutton bone soup. You can also eat ginseng, deer antler, yam, Cistanche deserticola, wolfberry, walnut, chestnut, sea cucumber, etc.
7.Chinese Medicine Foot Bath
Take 10 grams each of angelica and clematis, 8 grams each of vinegar frankincense and vinegar myrrh, 3 grams of processed Chuanwu, add 1500~2000 ml of water, boil for 10~15 minutes, and pour into a basin to soak your feet.
Once a day, 20~30 minutes each time. It can promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, dispel wind and cold, and relieve pain.
8.Foot Massage
Select acupoints such as Chengshan (in the middle of the back of the calf, between Weizhong and Kunlun, where a sharp angle appears under the gastrocnemius muscle belly when the calf is straightened or the heel is lifted), Xuanzhong (3 inches above the tip of the external malleolus, the front edge of the fibula), Yongquan (in the depression in the front part of the foot, the first third of the line between the tip of the 2nd and 3rd toe web and the heel), Neiting (located on the dorsum of the foot, between the 2nd and 3rd toes, at the junction of the red and white flesh behind the edge of the toe web), Taichong (located on the dorsum of the foot, between the 1st and 2nd metatarsal bones, in the depression in front of the metatarsal junction), Ashi point (tender point of the foot), etc. Press and rub each point for 2 to 3 minutes, 1 to 2 times a day. It can warm the meridians and dredge the collaterals, dispel cold and relieve pain, and promote qi and blood circulation.
