Pregnancy Yoga Poses To Avoid
• Usually an ache or piercing pain, but may initially be mild. Sometimes cramping of the forefoot or toes may be a symptom.
• Decreased sensation or a numb toe can occur at any time during the injury and sometimes prior to any pain.
• Many people feel a click with or without associated pain at the ball of the foot when walking or yoga.
• Pain may be intermittent and unpredictable in the beginning.
• The injury is caused by irritation or damage to a nerve that travels between the metatarsals and divides at the base of the toes to enter each toe.
• The word neuroma just means enlarged nerve. It is not a tumor since it is composed of the same tissue as a normal nerve. It is produced by physical irritation of the tissue.
• The most common location is between the 3rd and 4th toes. This specific injury is called “Morton’s Neuroma” after the doctor who originally described it.
• Neuromas in the second innerspace involving the 2nd and/or 3rd toes are less common.
• If you suspect a neuroma in any other location it is probably another injury.
• There are neuritis’s that are nerve irritations in several other locations, but true neuromas are rare elsewhere.
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• The actual neuroma injury starts as a mild irritation of the nerve that is similar in size and color to a small toothpick. Continued irritation causes a thickening of the nerve to many times its normal diameter. When the neuroma becomes as large as a pencil, it becomes a candidate for surgery. Less commonly the nerve is irritated to such an extent that it is “strangulated” and becomes smaller than normal and flattened by the pressure.
• Normally, the foot has adequate space between each metatarsal so that the nerve can function without irritation. Over time, the foot may gradually shrink the space between the toes. In come cases this is aggravated by shoes that are too small, over several months or years. One result is the hammertoe shape in which the toes curve upward. In this case, the toe knuckles become rounded and the end of the toe or nail touches the ground rather than the fleshy pad on the bottom of the toe tip. Even mild cases of hammertoe force the ball of the foot to change its weight bearing pattern. In this case the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th metatarsal heads are lower and roll toward one other stretching the nerve upward into the toes instead of entering straight and flat. This condition is also known as a loss of the anterior arch. When looking straight at a foot from the toes back, at eye level, the plane of the bottom surface of the ball of the foot should be flat. If it is curved, with the center lower, neuromas and foot pain can result.
• Wearing shoes that are too small.
• Wearing elevated heels especially with pointed toes.
• Ski boots, bike shoes and soccer cleats should be considered as frequent offenders.
• Anatomical variations in individuals make them susceptible.
