How to prevent heel pain at home?

• Wear good quality, lace-up runners
  I prefer quality brands like Asics and New Balance. If you are making a choice, I would look for Shoes in the neutral range, from these brands.
• Over the counter orthotics or insoles
  People with flat feet, fallen Arches or those who have ankles that are “rolled in”. Will benefit greatly from using simple over-the-counter insoles or arch supports.

If you have very high archers or your ankles roll out, you can try these arch supports, but on most occasions, your feet generally require more cushioning rather than support so arch “supports” can often become an irritant. (Sorry, I can’t tell you over the Internet what foot type you have or where you fit.)

Brands I like;

• ReAlign – now available at most Rebel sports stores and some camping stores and other good quality running footwear outlets and podiatrists.
• Orthaheel – These orthotic inserts are available from most pharmacists, some department stores and some podiatrists.
• Formthotics – These are over the counter insoles, they often passed off by practitioners as custom made or customised devices. This is, in my humble opinion, nonsense. Let’s call them what they are, that is, “over the counter orthotics”. They have their place. These are mostly available at some podiatrists physiotherapist and chiropractor

We need to acknowledge The fact that over the counter insoles available from sports stores, chemists or even the ones available at physiotherapists or some podiatry clinics, are in no way the same as custom-made, prescription orthotics available from a qualified podiatrist.

There would be no way anyone would suggest that the reading glasses you can buy from the pharmacy or now some department stores are in any way the same as the prescription glasses prescribed by an optometrist. The same is true for prescription orthotics made by a podiatrist. They have very similar distinctions as prescription glasses. Please don’t send me messages about this, in my opinion, and it’s just silly to try to compare the two as similar.

Gel insoles or heel raises are not the same as over-the-counter orthotics and will in my experience create more problems in the long run, so stay away.

How to cure heel pain at home

Rolling Frozen Water Bottle or a Tennis Ball GENTLY under your foot

• Rolling a frozen plastic ice bottle in your arch
  Try softly rolling a frozen bottle of water in your arch. Make sure this bottle is plastic. You are best to place a towel over the frozen bottle as. A piece of advice I highly recommend is not pressing to firmly on this bottle as I have come across patients who have increased their pain to the area by doing so. This process works well if you gently roll the bottle in your arch for around 10 to 15 minutes – two or three times an afternoon or morning.
• Rolling soft tennis ball
  Use a SOFT tennis ball! I regularly see patients who have again increased or irritated their heel pain by using Hard or Rigid balls in their arch, all on the suggestions of social media health guru. Lacrosse balls, golf balls, cricket balls should be left for the sport they were designed for originally. Again roll the bottle in your arch GENTLY!  There is a great risk of irritating an already irritated area by doing this too firmly.
• Immobilise your foot
  Many practitioners will tell you to wear an Aircast boot of some type or other. This is generally a bad idea as it completely reduces the movement in your foot. (Note BAD for you). You are much better using some type of laced up running shoe as advised above. You will need to wear these the majority of the time. Wearing these for two or three hours, of a fifteen-hour day, will virtually get you nowhere. It’s like wearing your reading glasses for three hours taking them off and wondering why your eyes get sore after another five hours of reading