What Does a Heel Spur Feel Like? (Sole Insoles for Heel Spurs)

Today, news flash: 15% of people in society right now, on average in America—that's the statistic—have a heel spur that they're suffering with. And it's said that 40 to 45% of people in their lifetime will have some type of chronic bottom-of-the-heel or back-of-the-heel pain.

A heel spur is defined as a growth of two millimeters or more growing on the bottom of your heel or the back of your heel. When we take an X-ray, it looks like a spike coming out of the bottom of your heel, which is associated with your plantar fascia, or a large spike on the back, which is associated with your Achilles tendon.

So, the heel spur without an X-ray is not really visible. You can take your hand through your skin and try to push up on it—the area will feel bruised, but you won't really feel the spike. Same thing on the back of your heel: it'll feel bruised, it'll feel sore in most cases, but you shouldn't really feel the spike unless you're like 70 or 80 and it's a horrendous spur.

Here are the risk factors for a heel spur:

If you're elderly, if you're stiff, if you have a tight back, tight glutes, tight hamstrings, tight knees, if you have knee pain, or hip pain.

If you're an athlete and you get up in the morning and the bottom of your foot is sore, the back of your heel is sore, if you feel like you're getting slower and achier, and you can't jump as high and you can't run as fast—these are things that might signify a heel spur.

If you suffer from plantar fasciitis, a condition affecting the plantar fascia between your heel and your toes, you are more likely to suffer from bone spurs as well. Increasing age, diabetes, flat feet, and regular long periods of standing can also cause you to develop these spurs. Anything that consistently places strain on your heel can cause these calcium deposits to develop.

What a heel spur is: you can think of a rope. When you pull on the rope, that rope gets damaged. Well, the body tries to fix these things. So the ligaments that pull out of your heel rip out of the heel on the bottom—that's called your plantar fascia. So when your plantar fascia rips out of the bottom of your heel, your body tries to create new bone to strengthen that. That's what the heel spur is.

Or in the back of your heel, when your Achilles tendon is pulled vertically, it rips out of the back of your heel with microscopic tears and damages the area. And what happens is your body, day after day, year after year, grows a spur to strengthen that insertion. So your Achilles tendon comes in the back, and your plantar fascia comes in on the bottom—that's what leads to the heel spurs.

If you feel sharp, intense heel pain, it’s probably plantar fasciitis, not heel spurs. That’s caused by overuse of the ligament running along your arch to your heel.

If that ligament (the plantar fascia) tears or becomes strained, it leads to inflammation. You’ll feel significant pain in the heel and stiffness along the sole.

The symptoms of heel spurs are less intense. In fact, many people with these bone spurs don’t know that they have them.

When bone spurs in the heel cause symptoms, they may include:

• Mild pain or tenderness in the heel when you put your weight on it
• A slight bump along the heel that may be noticeable to the touch
• Calluses or corns that form at the site of heel spurs, for added cushioning
• Swelling or a feeling of warmth in your heel

These symptoms may indicate that someone has heel spurs plus plantar fasciitis:

• Intense heel pain when you stand for the first time each morning
• Heel pain that may become less intense as the day progresses, as you move
• Heel pain that makes it difficult to walk around much, due to discomfort
• Difficulty walking barefoot, because the foot isn’t cushioned by shoes
• Heel pain that becomes more significant after you run, walk, or work out

No, heel spurs generally don’t ever go away. Since a heel spur is a calcium deposit that has hardened into bone, your body won't "reabsorb" it, and it won't disappear without surgical intervention.

However, there is a silver lining: the pain usually does go away.

Most people assume the "spike" of the spur is poking their tissue, but the pain is actually caused by inflammation of the surrounding soft tissue—usually plantar fasciitis. Once you treat the inflammation, the spur remains, but you’ll likely never feel it.

• Rest and avoid activities that exacerbate the pain.
• Ice application to reduce inflammation.
• Strapping or taping of the foot
• Stretching and strengthening exercises.
• Activity and training advice.
• Foot mobilisation.
• Footwear advice.
• Orthotic shoe inserts to decrease stress and provide support.
• Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) to stimulate healing.
• Dry needling.
• Corticosteroid injections for severe pain and inflammation.
• Surgery (in rare cases when other treatments fail).

Can you take care of a bone spur without surgery? Well, not every bone spur needs to be operated on. Sometimes we're able to work with anti-inflammatory medication—whether it be a topical medication or a cortisone injection—to take away the pain associated with a bone spur.

It's not going to take away the spur itself, but it will take away the pain. If it takes it away for long enough, then that's all you need. But if you find that it keeps coming back, then yes, surgery is the other option for treating a bone spur.

The good news is that surgery is not that bad. We go in, identify the bone spur, remove it, suture you closed, and you're able to bear weight immediately after, in most cases. It's a pretty straightforward recovery.

Heel spurs are often mistaken for plantar fasciitis, but plantar fasciitis is more painful than a heel spur and involves intense, sharp pain that runs from your heel to your toes. Heel spurs occur when your heel bone forms spurs or calcium deposits on the heel bone, whereas plantar fasciitis is a type of inflammation of the plantar fascia.

Heel spurs are not always as painful as plantar fasciitis. However, some people do suffer from heel pain caused by both. This is why it’s incredibly important to wear comfortable shoes for heel spurs with extra cushioning and support.

To find the right PCSsole, start with your shoes. What type of shoes are you wearing? What are you doing in those shoes? We think you deserve to experience the I-never-knew-my-feet-could-feel-this-good benefits of the PCSsole shape in all your footwear. That’s why we make insoles for casual and dress shoes, shoe inserts for high heels, insoles for hiking, insoles for running shoes, insoles for work boots, insoles for pickleball, and more.