Are you one of those people that springs out of bed in the morning - ready and willing to face the day....

Or are you one of many that dread that first foot on the floor due to morning heel pain? This type of pain is very common and is usually because of the presence of a heel spur. Heel spurs are those nasty protruding bones that appear on the heel. They can cause a great deal of discomfort and are very like to be the cause of your morning heel pain.

If you are lucky you will find that morning heel pain does wear off as you walk around and everything warms up. This of course is not only the case for foot ailments. Quite often a stiff back or arm will be fine after a couple of minutes of moving around. If the pain does go, then its more likely that the pain is more due to overworking the feet (maybe by jogging or other sports) that to a heel spur.

However if the pain does not abate and continues to cause problems, then heel spurs are something you may want to look into. Diagnosis is made via an X-Ray when the small protruding bone will be visible. After this, you will need to decide what the next steps are (no pun intended!)

Surgery is the only way to remove a heel spur completely, but this of course is a bit of a drastic option for some people. Not only because of the risks of going under a general anaesthetic, but also recovery time. As cuts will have been made and procedures taken place within the heel area, then you should not put any weight on the foot for a while, so that the healing process can take place. If you have a job where you need to be active and/or cannot afford to be off work for any length of time then you may not want to go down the surgery route.

Also there are probably not going to be guarantees of 100% success - so you could find yourself dealing with the after affects of the operation as well as still putting off getting out of bed due to morning heel pain.

As always, its a good idea to see if relief can be obtained in any other way before resorting to surgery. There are many things available on the market now which give good relief from pain associated with heel spurs.

Another option is prevention rather than cure. If heel spur diagnosis is made early then you have a good chance of avoiding a lot of pain by ensuring that you rest the foot and also stretch on a regular basis. Ice may also help to alleviate pain and swelling.

So please be assured that morning heel pain, does not have to rule your life and that there are ways that you can get relief and find yourself leaping out of bed like a toddler again.