Joint Pain

It seems like their is an increasing number of television commercials showing an ad for a new medication to help with joint pain. They always show someone climbing Mt. Everest, or running the Boston Marathon and talking about how they can resume extreme athletic activities without their pain. But what about the average Joe who has the aches and pains?

Joint pain of the foot and ankle can be caused by a number of things such as arthritis, gout, fractures, and infection. First your podiatrist will want to ask a series of questions to narrow down the list. Inflammation would also be noted by asking about redness or swelling. Most often joint pain is caused by the loss of cartilage between two bones. Let’s use your car as an example. The more miles you tack on, the more your brake pads wear out. Eventually you hear a terrible squeak when you brake indicating that it is metal on metal grinding. Cartilage is like your brake pads and the metal brakes are like your bones. The cartilage acts like a cushion for your joints much like the brake pads were protecting the metal. When the cartilage wears down the joint becomes painful causing arthritis.

Treatment for painful joints wound depend on the underlying cause that would need to be fixed first and foremost. This could include joint replacement, antibiotics for an infection, therapy, orthoics or shoe modifications. There are different types of medications that can be helpful depending on the type of arthritis that can act in suppressing your immune system so it doesn’t attack the joint, leading to pain. If your feet are painful to walk on, come by and see the podiatrists at Foot Associates of Central Texas for an evaluation.