Tips for Buying Shoes for Heel Pain
Do you feel like buying good shoes is a mystery that you cannot seem to solve? While females sometimes choose style and beauty over comfort, men too can suffer from shoes that fit poorly. Wearing poor fitting shoes can not only cause pain and discomfort, it can also precipitate foot conditions such as bunion, corn, blisters to name a few. If you are already suffering from heel pain, selecting the right footwear will avoid making your condition worse.
3 Things to Look Out For
Aside from a good fit length and width wise, there are a few additional things you can lookout for when you are buying a pair of shoes to make your feet more comfortable. If you are suffering from heel pain, these tips might allow you to narrow down your options.
Firm Heel Counter
The heel counter is the back of the shoe, it wraps around your heel bone to support it. A firm heel counter is important to help pronation and supination, and stops the heel from turning too much. When you press down at the heel counter, the one that collapses will not provide adequate support to your ankle and heel.
Flexibility
Hold the shoes on both ends, and bend them towards each other gently. The shoe should have some resistance, and bend at the ball of the feet, more towards the front. If the shoe bends easily and in the middle, it will be more likely to give you pain. Shoes than bend in the middle are more likely to give you heel pain, as your feet usually bends at the ball of the feet and not the middle.
Wringing Test
After you have done the bending test, wring the shoes like you would wring a towel. A good shoe would not let you do that easily, as it serves to support your feet when you are wearing it. If you can wring the shoe easily like a towel, it is not your ideal shoe. A good shoe should offer some resistant, the soles at the bottom should be firm and hard enough so that your feet would not go flat when you put weight on it.
Treating Heel Pain
If you want to stop dreading getting out of the bed or the chair, then visit a podiatrist. As foot specialist, we can assess your situation and recommend treatment to best help with your heel pain. We also check if you are candidate for extracorporeal shockwave treatment, which shows an improvement in 75% of the patients who had the treatment.
Heel pain is, and should not be part of your life, and we can help you.
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