Pain is your body’s way of warning you that something is wrong. If you step on a sharp object or put your hand on a hot stove, the pain lets you know right away that you are hurt and need to protect yourself. You may have pain from an injury, after surgery, or from a health problem like cancer, osteoarthritis, low back pain, headaches, or fibromyalgia.
Your body feels pain through nerves in your skin and organs. These nerve endings send pain signals to your brain.
What are the different types of pain?
Pain can affect:
- Muscles, bones, and joints. It also affects the ligaments and tendons. This pain can happen from injuries or muscle strain. Health problems like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia also can cause it.
- Nerves and the nervous system. This type of pain happens because of pressure on nerves or damage to them from an injury or a health problem. Sometimes pain occurs when something goes wrong with the central nervous system. Diabetes, shingles, and sciatica are examples of health problems that cause nerve pain.
- Organs. Pain in your organs occurs because of injuries, infections, or health problems such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, pelvic pain, and stomach ulcers.
Normally, pain occurs as the direct result of tissue damage (wound). This pain can be severe but usually wears off quickly, however, in some wounds the pain can persist.
When a wound is slow to heal it is called a ‘chronic wound’- patients with these types of wounds, such as leg ulcers or pressure ulcers, have reported significant pain levels. In fact, in some research studies pain is often reported as the greatest issue when living with a wound.
Treatment
Many different treatments can ease pain. Medicines are the most common treatment. But to feel better, you also can try other things, such as reducing your stress level or changing how you think.
You also can try physical therapy, relaxation, acupuncture, and other ways to feel better. Talk with your doctor about what mix of treatments might work best for you.
Your treatment depends on several things, including:
- How bad your pain is (based on what you tell your doctor).
- How long you’ve had pain.
- The type of pain you have. For example, you might take different medicine for joint pain than you would for nerve pain.
- Other health problems you may have.
If you have pain for a long time, your treatment may change over time.
Foot pain is not normal and should not be ignored. The presence of foot problems can affect the proper functioning of other parts of the body, including the hip, knee and back.
Foot problems are often treated with shoe inserts called orthotics. Custom-made orthotics are medical devices inserted into the shoe to correct an abnormal or irregular walking pattern. They are prescribed to reduce pain, to provide support, to prevent foot deformity or keep it from getting worse, to provide better positioning, to relieve pressure on a certain area of the foot, and to improve the overall biomechanical function of the foot and lower extremity.
Orthotics can work like shock absorbers, removing pressure and stress from painful areas in the foot and ankle. Orthotics also promote the proper alignment of the feet. They can restore balance, improve sports performance and even alleviate pain in the knee, hip and lower back. Research shows that back problems, the most common form of chronic pain, can often be traced to a foot imbalance.
Foot pain? Knee pain? Back pain? It does not matter where it pinches or aches, orthopedic shoes can relieve pain quickly. But the right pair of shoes offers more than just relief. It can prevent foot deformities and injuries, and in some cases, it can even correct them.