Managing Ankle Pain Naturally
There are many reasons why your ankle might hurt, and trust me when I say that scientific evidence shows ice is usually NOT the best option for therapy (see this blog post). Some reasons your ankle might be in pain include arthritis, gout, poor arches, fracture, bursitis, or tendonitis - but the most common reason for ankle pain (which may also include any of the former) is a simple sprain. Whatever the cause, one of our YG chiropractors or physiotherapists can offer you a proper diagnosis, and can help you on your path to managing ankle pain naturally. Your chiropractor or physiotherapist at Yellow Gazebo may also be able to help relieve your pain by using some different manipulative techniques to allow more blood flow into the ankle for faster healing.
What Causes Ankle Pain?
It shouldn't be surprising really, that most ankle pain comes from simple sprains (and usually on the outside, or “lateral” side of your ankle). Most of us pay little attention to the health of and preventing injury to our ankles, even if we exercise. And evolutionarily speaking, we haven’t really evolved to walk upright yet. Ankles are incredibly thin and barely have any muscle stabilizing them; contrast these joints at the base of our bodies to our hips, which reside in the middle but have an amazing amount of muscle tissue wrapping around for stabilization purposes. Even our shoulders which are nearly at the top of our bodies, have more muscle tissue than our ankles. Clearly we have a long way to evolve in regards to these poor, unprotected joints!
How to Heal Ankle Pain
There are a few different pharmaceutical ways to manage ankle pain of course, but unfortunately none of these will cure your pain. They may allow you to exercise however, but be sure to ask your Yellow Gazebo therapist if exercise is right for you. Sometimes gout or weight can be an issue, and the slightest changes in diet can even be helpful. Again, these are questions to ask one of our professionals.
Your ankle pain may be relieved with some gentle massage of your calf muscle, which you can try at home. Of course one of our massage therapists or osteopaths can help you a little more with this, but at-home massage (along with adding some heat) can go a long way to getting you more comfortable.
Acupuncture is another natural way to manage ankle pain well, as the insertion of some fine needles can actually get into places that hands cannot as accurately. Plus although the needles do pierce the skin, compared to pressing on sore spots as with other modalities acupuncture does not hurt so much. At YG we have chiropractors and physiotherapists who perform acupuncture, as well as RAc’s and RTCMP’s.
Finally, orthotics may help - ask either of our chiropractors who both specialize in this modality and are trained to recommend only when necessary.
If you’d like some more information, would like to book a free consultation or would like to go ahead and schedule an appointment at Yellow Gazebo, please give us a call at 416-909-2334, email us at info@yellowgazeboclinic.com, or use the online booking link below. We’ll be happy to help you get on your way to optimum health.
