Can Metatarsalgia Be Reversed?

Metatarsalgia denotes a painful and inflammatory foot condition of an individual in his or her metatarsal area of the foot/feet i.e. the foot’s ball area or the one before the toes. The mentioned foot disorder affects joints and bones at the foot’s ball region. Metatarsalgia often remains located under one’s second, third and fourth metatarsal heads or even stays isolated across the big toe i.e. the first metatarsal head.

Metatarsal bones present in humans primarily share their bodyweight equally while they perform any physical activity. However, in case of any delicate balance between two bones becomes disrupt, individuals experience pain and inflammation. However, the extent of pain may be from mild to an intense one, while doctors refer this condition as metatarsalgia.

Indeed, the question that comes in our mind is that whether one can reverse the condition of metatarsalgia. For this, our experts have said that you may reverse or prevent your symptoms based on a few common steps related to alleviation of your painful feelings and discomfort.

The selection of appropriate shoes or footwear collections is the first and the most important step associated with the elimination and prevention of your pain as well as inflammation associated with metatarsalgia.^[1] The main objective in this case is to identify the right footwear, which may easily distribute your bodyweight and pressure in an even way across the entire area of your foot instead of concentrating them in the ball and toe areas only.

You should consult your doctor to get some of the essential anti-inflammatory medications to relieve your pain in the forefoot area.^[2]

You should regularly massage the affected area to get relief from swelling in the forefoot area, increase the local circulation and avoid/reduce your pain.^[3]

Doctors recommend patients wearing essential accessories to deal with footwear orthotics and metatarsalgia problems. These include the following-

• Supportive foot arch type of insoles and orthotics to avoid any abnormal collapse of the respective arch
• Metatarsal pads or domes helpful to separate your foot area’s bones and relieve excessive pressure experienced by the metatarsals

A large number of physiotherapists have come up with an effective and a dynamic type of corrective foot posture related exercises to correct the dynamic muscular control of the forefoot area. The therapy or exercise in this case helps you retraining the foot muscles, so that you do not require wearing orthotics equipped shoes to resolve your problem in a passive way. The best thing about exercise is that it lets you retraining the weakness in your foot muscles successfully within a period of only weeks.^[4]

Metatarsalgia or forefoot pain may take place because of many factors, which include abnormalities in the bones and diabetes or any other type of systemic disease.

However, the problem mainly occurs due to alteration in metatarsals i.e. long bones posture in the foot. These bones are responsible to absorb your bodyweight while you walk. Furthermore, in case any bone falls down due to weakness or lack of enough support, it fractures due to stress and thereby, creates dysfunction in each of the bones.

Metatarsalgia takes place due to other reasons, which include-

• Enlarged metatarsal head
• Degenerative disease of bone joints, including the problem of arthritis
• Systemic conditions, including the problem of diabetes mellitus that may cause nerve-type of pain in your foot
• Skin lesions or calluses, which results in uneven distribution of the bodyweight on your foot area
• Jogging and other forms of sports, which lead to tremendous pounding on your foot’s ball or forefoot area
• Aging that results in shifting or thinning out of fatty tissues present in your footpad.^[5]

To conclude, we should say that yes, you may reverse your metatarsalgia condition by simply following the aforementioned prevention techniques.

References:

Also Read:

• Stone Bruise or Metatarsalgia: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment
• Morton’s Neuroma or Morton’s Metatarsalgia or Plantar Neuroma: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
• Pain in the Ball of Foot or Metatarsalgia: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
• How Do I Treat Metatarsalgia?