Why is foot pain is common in the winter?
Have you ever wondered why your foot pain worsen in the winter? Whether due to common everyday foot pain or chronic conditions that just happen to flare up with no warning, foot pain is not forgiving and is very common in the winter for various reasons. Regardless of your feet aching in the day or night, it can be difficult to go about your day. So, let’s review some reasons to why foot pain is common in the winter and tips to overcoming your winter foot pain.
Reasons why foot pain is common in the winter
During the colder months of the year, your feet tend to hurt worse than they did during the fall for many reasons that include the cold weather, not wearing supportive shoes during the summer months, and added weight over the holidays.
Cold weather on your feet causing your pain
Cold weather can be a pain in more ways than you can think. Your body may be shivering on the outside but it may be causing havoc on the inside for achy joints, muscles, and bones. For the reason, that colder temperature can shrink the tissues in your joints like your knees and hips, which can cause them to pull on the nerve endings and cause joint pain. Consequently, cold weather tends to intensify foot conditions such as arch pain, heel pain, and plantar fasciitis.
Unsupportive shoes can lead to foot pain
During the warm summer months, we tend to wear flip-flop and sandals more than we should. Flip-flops are easy to slip-on, plus they allow your toes to breath. However, not all flip-flops are forgiving on your feet. Most flip-flops are flimsy and offer no arch support. They add strain on your muscles and tendons with every step you take. Under these circumstances, sandals with no arch support, can overstretch, tear, or inflame your plantar fascia, which induces your foot pain.
Extra weight adds extra pressure on your arches and feet
Not only can extra weight lead to obesity, but it is associated with an increased risk of foot pain, which can lead to further problems such as plantar fasciitis. The added weight over the holidays adds extra strain on your arches which tends to irritate and stretch your plantar fascia, thus causing your winter foot pain.
Common Foot Problems in the winter – Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis is a nuisance to live with, especially in the winter time. Plantar fasciitis takes place when your plantar fascia becomes inflamed. It causes severe pain on the bottoms of the feet, especially in the morning when you get up after your night’s rest. Plantar fasciitis symptoms include:
- Sharp pain at the bottom of your heels.
- Heel pain that tends to be worse in the morning after your first steps.
- Heel pain after standing from a long period of resting.
- Heel pain after, not during, exercise.
- Mild to severe swelling in your heels.
Overcoming Winter Foot Pain
Many of us would love to fast-forward winter and get back to summer, but we can’t! Although this may true, now that we do know why foot pain is common in the winter, it helps us establish the best tips to overcome winter foot pain.
- Rest the feet as much as possible.
- Avoid walking barefoot.
- Perform daily foot stretches.
- Insert custom orthotics or over-the-counter arch supports into the shoes for added arch support.
- Perform the RICE method:REST: Staying off of your feet as much as possible will keep your tissue bands underneath your feet from getting irritated
- ICE: Rolling your feet on a cold water bottle massages the tissue bands which also helps to reduce inflammation.
- COMPRESSION: With a compression sleeve or bandage, you help keep your tissue bands underneath your feet from becoming irritated which helps reduce inflammation. Reducing inflammation helps the tissue bands heal faster.
- ELEVATE: Keeping your feet off the ground reduces blood flow which in turn helps with the healing process.
Although foot pain is common in the winter, you can beat it with supportive shoes
Remember, pain is not normal! So if you feel your winter foot pain getting in the way of your day, it’s time to visit a Lucky Feet Shoes store, we have multiple stores in Southern California for your all your footwear needs! We offer many supportive shoes and arch supports to help alleviate foot pain caused by plantar fasciitis.
