According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, walking 1 mile places 60 tons of stress on each foot. Although the feet are resilient and capable of bearing considerable force, too much stress can cause pain or discomfort. Foot pain is often located in three places: forefoot, midfoot and rearfoot.
The forefoot is the anterior one-third of the foot and is composed of the metatarsal bones and phalanges and their joints. According to an article on the New York Times Health website, forefoot pain or discomfort is felt toward the top of the foot, including the toes, and the rate of forefoot pain and deformity increases with age. The Sports Injury Clinic website lists the following conditions as possible causes of forefoot pain: corns and calluses, metatarsalgia, Morton’s neuroma, bunions, turf toe, hallux rigidus, metatarsal fractures, blisters, athlete’s foot, a broken toe, hammertoes and gout. When a definitive cause of pain under the forefoot cannot be determined, the pain often is referred to as metatarsalgia. Forefoot pain can result from traumatic injury or from wearing shoes that are too narrow. Shoes that possess wide toe boxes allow the toes and forefoot sufficient room to spread and reduce the likelihood of forefoot pain.
The midfoot is the middle third of the foot, and is composed of the tarsal bones and their joints. The midfoot also contains a significant portion of the medial longitudinal arch, the foot’s primary arch. According to the Sports Injury Clinic, the causes of midfoot pain are numerous. A non-exhaustive list of problems associated with the midfoot include stress fractures, lateral plantar nerve entrapment, pes cavus, various ligament sprains, tarsal coalition, sinus tarsi syndrome, tibialis posterior tendinopathy, tibialis posterior syndrome, blisters, extensor tendinitis and peroneal tendinopathy or tendinitis. The type of midfoot pain a person experiences dictates the kind of treatment she receives. According to eOrthopod.com, because midfoot pain can be severely debilitating and significantly affect a person’s activities of daily living, treatment is often necessary. Most types of midfoot pain can be treated using conservative therapies.
The rearfoot is the posterior third of the foot and is composed of the calcaneus and talus bones and their associated joints. In shoe-wearing populations, the heel is the first part of the foot to strike the ground during gait, which places a significant amount of force on the heel and its associated structures and tissues. The Podiatry Channel website states that heel pain is one of the most common types of foot pain in adults, and heel pain may occur from the use of inappropriate footwear or traumatic injury. According to the Feet For Life website, hindfoot or heel pain comes in several types. A non-exhaustive list of the causes of heel pain include: plantar fasciosis, bruised heels, calcaneal stress fractures, tarsal tunnel syndrome, medial calcaneal nerve entrapment, Achilles bursitis and blisters. The Podiatry Channel website notes that heel pain occurs in both heels in less than 30 percent of heel pain cases, and that the left heel often is the first to be affected.