What Is Ankle Pain?
When most people think of ankle pain, the first thing that comes to mind is an acute injury. Typically this would be from twisting your ankle while walking or doing some sort of physical activity. Although this is common, this is not the only reason people get ankle pain. Let’s go over a few conditions that can cause ankle pain without a known injury.
Reason for Ankle Pain With No Injury..
One possible cause of ankle pain without injury is what we call arthritis of the ankle. The most common type of arthritis is called osteoarthritis. This is when you lose the cartilage in your ankle joint, and as a result you get bone rubbing on bone. The reason this is a problem is because overtime this causes inflammation in the joint which causes pain and swelling. Common causes of osteoarthritis include old age or post traumatic arthritis. Old age osteoarthritis is caused just from the repetitive wear and tear of your joint overtime. Post traumatic arthritis is when you suffer an acute injury and because of this, later down the line you can develop the same loss in cartilage. Because of the nature of the injury, you can develop post traumatic arthritis at a younger age while regular wear and tear of the joint happens typically at an older age. In turns of symptoms, typically you will experience pain towards the end of the day and with activity and can be alleviated with rest. Aside from osteoarthritis, there are other types of arthritis that you can develop in your ankle....
Arthritis Can Cause Ankle Pain...
One of these conditions is called rheumatoid arthritis. This is an autoimmune disorder that attacks your joints. It is also possible that you can have symptoms in other joints in your body as well. Due to the inflammatory nature of this disease, there are different autoimmune medications that may help with your symptoms. Symptoms differ from OA in that they improve with activity and are typically more painful at rest. Another type of arthritis that you could experience in your ankle is called gouty arthritis. Gout is an excessive amount of uric acid in your body that gets deposited into your joints. Typically the most common area for gout is your big toe joint, but you can experience an attack in any of the joints in your foot and ankle. The symptoms with gout are extreme pain associated with redness and swelling. Typically this is described as "pain even when a bed sheet is lying on top." Luckily this type of gout can be managed at our office with oral medication or steroid injection. These attacks are typically sparked when patients eat red meat, seafood or alcohol.
Other Reasons For Ankle Pain
A common type of ankle pain can be from repetitive trauma or stress to the ankle area. This in turn can cause sprains of the medial and lateral ligaments on your ankle. Causes of this repetitive stress can be something as simple as wearing a different shoe gear, increasing activity or gaining weight. Your foot type can also predispose you to have repetitive ankle stress. In particular a person with a high arched foot (or pes cavus foot type) is more susceptible to issues on the lateral side of their ankle. An easy way to think of this is, when someone wears a very high heeled shoe, you are more susceptible to roll or twist your ankle. On the other hand, a person with a flat foot type (or pes planus foot type) can experience undo stress to the medial ankle ligaments. A person with a flat foot can also develop posterior tibial tendonitis (or posterior tibial dysfunction). This tendon is responsible for holding the arch of your foot up. Conversely, repetitive stress in a person with a high arched foot can develop tendonitis in the peroneal tendons. These tendons run along the lateral aspect of the ankle and foot and are also a common injury in patients that twist their ankle.
Hillsborough, New Jersey Podiatrist Can Help Treat Ankle Pain
Many things can be the reason for your no-injury ankle pain but it is important to be educated on the possibile reasons for it. Once you understand your pain then we can get to treating it. Do not ignore ankle pain as it is not normal and if it does not go away in a couple of days, then it will not fully go away without some treatment. The above list is not a comprehensive list of all ankle problems you can have. It is important to have a podiatrist accurately diagnose you and treat you accordingly. Luckily here at Family Foot and Ankle Specialists we have many doctors that are ready and able to get you pain free. Look forward to seeing you in the office soon!
Pleased give us a call at 908-874-8030 and continue to search throughout our website www.stopfootpainfast.com !
