Ankle Pain
Find Ankle Pain Relief
Does your ankle hurt? Does it hurt to stand? We understand ankle pain can be debilitating, and even incapacitating. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We believe one of the first steps in finding long-lasting ankle pain relief is understanding your pain, how your ankles work, and what’s causing the pain in the first place.
How Your Ankles Work
Your ankles are large joints where three bones meet. These bones are surrounded by tendons, ligaments, and other soft tissue. When everything is working well together, your ankles allow for pain-free up and down movement as well as side to side movement of your feet.
The three bones are the:
- Tibia, or shin bone
- Fibula, the thinner bone parallel to the shin bone
- Talus, a foot bone that sits on top of the heel bone
Since your ankles are directly connected to your feet, foot pain may be related to ankle pain, and vice versa. Ankle pain can relate to an issue with one or more of the bones, or to the tissues surrounding your ankle joint.
Ankle Pain Symptoms
While the main symptom is pain, the quality of the pain, location of the pain, when it started, and if the pain is constant, with weightbearing, worse at night, etc. Can help determine the cause. Symptoms include:
- Sudden ankle pain
- Sudden ankle pain without injury
- Chronic ankle pain
- Ankle nerve pain
- Sciatica ankle pain
- Inner ankle pain
- Outer ankle pain
- Front of ankle pain
- Back of ankle pain
- Ankle pain when walking
- Ankle pain when running
- Throbbing ankle pain at night
- Pain in both ankles
- Sharp ankle pain
- Heel ankle pain
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Sprained ankle pain getting worse
- Foot and ankle pain
- Knee and ankle pain
What Causes Ankle Pain?
There are many common causes of ankle pain, but most causes break down into two main categories – ankle injury or a systemic issue affecting the ankle. If you had a sudden injury, it will be easier to determine what is causing your ankle pain. We may refer you for diagnostic x-rays to help shed light on the subject.
Common causes of ankle pain include:
- Flat feet
- Pregnancy
- Obesity
- Sports injury
- Achilles tendinitis
- Achilles tendon rupture
- Torn ligament
- Sprained ankle
- Stress fracture
- Repetitive movement
- Bursitis
- Plantar fasciitis
- Gout
- Arthritis (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, etc.)
- Lupus
Ankle sprains or twisting injuries of the ankle are probably the most common cause of ankle pain, and can happen to just about anyone. A sprain can occur while participating in sports such as tennis, football, basketball, or soccer where there is frequent sideways motion of the foot, but can also happen from a simple misstep off of a curb, while walking on the beach, or while descending a flight of stairs.
Ankle Pain FAQs
Q: Can plantar fasciitis cause ankle pain?
A: Your ankle pain is serious if it is keeping you from doing the things you love. For an ankle injury, you should see a doctor if:
- You have severe swelling.
- You have extensive bruising.
- You can’t bear weight.
- You have chronic pain.
Q: What causes sudden ankle pain without injury?
A: The most common cause is bursitis. Each ankle has two fluid sacs called bursa. They act as a cushion between your ankle bones and tendons. When they become inflamed, they case ankle pain.
Q: What disease can cause ankle pain?
A: Any form of arthritis, as well as lupus can cause ankle pain.
Q: Can ankle pain be heart-related?
A: Possibly. If you have ankle swelling and pain from the swelling with no obvious sign of injury, and you also have shortness of breath, fatigue, or chest pain, you may have a heart condition you should get checked out.
Q: How do you relieve ankle pain?
A: Before we can relieve your ankle pain, we need to find the root cause. Then, we treat you based on the source of your pain. Keep reading to see what that entails.
How Cima Health Can Help
Cima Health provides restorative, lifelong solutions that target the root cause of your ankle pain. Your care will start out with a comprehensive evaluation to assess the pain. We will also ask questions about your health history, home life, lifestyle, and habits before making recommendations for an integrative plan of care. Together, we come up with conservative and alternative treatments that can help you live a healthy and active life.
Treating and preventing ankle pain involves several treatment modalities, all of which you can receive in one location. They include:
Chiropractic Care
After a thorough evaluation, the chiropractic care team may make precise adjustments of your ankle(s) and feet (extremity manipulation) and adjust for spinal alignment as well. Which treatments you receive will depend on the cause of your ankle pain. These adjustments are gentle, and will not cause you pain.
In addition to extremity manipulation and spinal manipulation, we may use other tools, including:
- Class IV laser
- Shockwave therapy for bone spurs
- FootMaxx orthotics
- Ankle bandage or brace
Our Palm Beach Gardens chiropractors who treat adults include:
Pediatric Care
Dr. Natalie is our doctor who specializes in pediatric care of infants and children, along with helping expectant moms and other adult patients. Chiropractic adjustments for children, adolescents, and teens can help prevent ankle pain. For young children, this involves the use of gait training and monitoring your child’s progress. Dr. Natalie can also work with your older child in the areas of sports injury prevention and rehabilitation.
Medical Care
You may also receive medical care in the form of joint injections as appropriate. A steroid injection, or cortisone shot, can help reduce pain, swelling, and stiffness in your ankle and foot. You are limited in how many steroid shots you can receive in a year. We may also recommend a series of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections where we use your own plasma to help you heal.Physical Therapy
Physical therapy (PT), can help you recover after an injury as well as help with arthritis and other causes of ankle pain. Treatments may include:
- Manual therapy
- Shockwave therapy
- Class IV laser
- Dry needling
- Strengthening exercises
- Flexibility exercises
- Taping
- Orthotic management
- Balance training
- Gait training
Our physical therapy team will show you a range of therapeutic exercises and self-massage techniques you can do at home as well as with the therapist. You’ll gradually increase the number of repetitions until you regain pain-free mobility.
Lifestyle Changes
Depending on the cause of your ankle pain or your child’s ankle pain, the doctors at Cima Health may make some recommendations for lifestyle changes. These can include:
- Proper footwear
- Dietary changes
- Exercising more
- Learning better form for athletics
Proper Footwear
Proper footwear can reduce ankle pain as well. Look for shoes with good ankle support. You can Google the term to find suggestions. You will also want shoes that provide arch support and a wide toe box. You may also want to consider special ankle compression socks (sleeves).
Dietary Changes
Making some dietary changes can reduce chronic inflammation that can lead to or worsen arthritis, gout, and plantar fasciitis. Our functional medicine team can work with you to develop a nutrition plan that helps reduce inflammation but can also help you lose weight, if weight is a factor in your ankle pain. Eating a healthy diet will help you feel better overall.
Physical Fitness
Getting physically fit and strengthening your muscles can help prevent ankle pain in the future. Our physical fitness team can also help you by developing an exercise program tailored to your capabilities and goals. Regular exercise can help with weight loss and improve circulation, targeting several causes of ankle pain. Our team may make recommendations on how to avoid sports injuries as well.
By making some lifestyle changes and getting regular chiropractic adjustments, you can help reduce ankle pain and prevent it from coming back. Team up with the providers at Cima Health to find restorative, lifelong solutions.
Read What Our Patients Have to Say
Book an Appointment
If you’re looking for a non-invasive and integrative approach to treatment for your ankle pain, book an appointment today. One of our chiropractors will do a comprehensive examination to get to the root cause of your pain and develop an integrative plan of care to relieve your pain and inspire you to achieve whole-body wellness.
