Experiencing heel pain upon standing or walking is a common occurrence. Unless we have an injury or condition that does not allow us to use our feet, many of us spend a great deal of time on our feet each day, and this can stress them. There is a variety of causes for why so many people feel heel pain.  Some are serious, while others are simple enough to correct.  Heel pain can sometimes be felt even when a person is sitting or lying down because tissues of the foot are inflamed or irritated, and results in continuous pain. Severe foot conditions can cause heel pain intense enough to interfere with the mobility of individuals suffering from them.

Health, activity level, injury, and even the kind of shoes that you wear can all result in plantar fasciitis.

Health issues such as diabetes and obesity lead the list for possible causes. Diabetics are susceptible to developing nerve damage in the foot due to their disease and this can result in severe plantar fasciitis and serious complications if left untreated. Overweight individuals place added stress on their feet, which have to balance the excess weight. This can cause discomfort and other painful foot symptoms. Losing weight and wearing supportive footwear can help eliminate heel and other foot pain.

Heel pain is an equal-opportunistic condition in that it can strike super-active people as well as those who are less active. Straining and pulling injuries resulting in heel injury can occur.  A torn Achilles tendon can result in sharp, stinging heel-pain that can increase with movement or with weight placed on the affected foot. Sometimes splinting and resting the foot will allow the Achilles tendon to repair itself, while serious tendon tears often require a surgical fix.

Plantar Fasciitis is another possible cause for heel pain and the most commonly diagnosed condition affecting the foot.  This foot problem marked by sharp heel-pains often begins when you first get out of bed in the morning.

Bad-fitting shoes and wearing shoes that are not appropriate for the activity you are engaging in or for the terrain you are traversing upon are also possible causes for this foot problem. Choosing to forego wearing any footwear at all and walking or running on harsh surfaces, can also bring about this conditions. High heel shoes are possible causes for heel problems in many women.  Wearing these shoes results in an unequal distribution of a woman’s weight, and this can stress the feet and cause problems.

If you are experiencing heel spurs that does not go away after a day of elevating and resting the foot, consult with your doctor. Those people having diabetes should notify their health care provider immediately should they begin experiencing heel pain, as this could be a sign of a more serious foot condition.

 

There is an array of causes of back pain. The most common cause for back pain is from lifting improperly or too heavy of items. However, stretching or trying to reach for something can also cause severe back pain. Traumatic injury to the back from an accident can be another cause for the back pain.

Treating back pain can be done with exercises and or medication. However, there is the possibility there is more than a muscle strain. There are many conditions that can cause back pain. For example, sciatica, slipped disc and even kidney infections. Your root cause for the back pain will be a large factor in the treatment regimen your doctor uses to relieve the pain.

Before your back pain can be treated, the cause for the pain should be pinpointed whenever possible. In some circumstances the cause is nearly impossible to determine. However, if the cause of the pain can be determined it can be beneficial in finding a successful course of treatment.

For example, if the cause for your back pain was due to lifting, your doctor will more than likely treat you with medication, stretching exercises, rest and suggest better methods for lifting. Generally, the best way to lift something is by bending your knees and lifting with your knees instead of your back.

If the pain is caused from an injury, your doctor will likely run some tests to determine if you have nerve damage, a slipped disc or something of that nature. It is possible you will need surgery to repair the damage and alleviate the pain. In some cases, if there has been a traumatic injury, depending on the severity of the injury, traction, a brace, medication or surgery might be the course of treatment utilized by your doctor.

Keep in mind, a surgical procedure is usually a last resort treatment for back pain. There are several medications both prescription and over the counter that can be used to reduce the back pain. In some patients, a doctor might determine an injection into the nerve with medication is necessary.

Although the causes of back pain can vary, the treatments usually all start the same, with the exception of serious injury to the spinal cord. Your doctor will consider your overall health and your medical history when determining the course of treatment that will best work for your back pain.

The widely used antidepressant and pain medication amitriptyline–but not other closely related drugs — can impersonate the brain’s own growth factors, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have shown.

The results are published online and will appear in the June 26 issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology.

onlinepharmacylist.net/36/1/Elavil/”>Amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant first introduced in the 1960s, and other tricyclics are thought to exert their effects by increasing the levels of the messenger chemicals serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain.

But the delay required for antidepressants to work has led scientists to the idea that a secondary effect, pushing neurons to survive and grow, must occur indirectly.

The finding that amitriptyline can directly stimulate molecules that help neurons grow and resist toxins suggests a separate mechanism by which some antidepressant and pain relief compounds may function.

Keqiang Ye, PhD, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, and his colleagues were looking for chemicals that could imitate a protein in the brain known as NGF (nerve growth factor).

NGF has been used experimentally to treat Alzheimer’s disease and the degeneration of nerves in the extremities caused by diabetes. However, NGF cannot cross the blood-brain barrier and has puzzled investigators with its side effects, such as increased sensitivity to pain.

Working in Ye’s laboratory, postdoctoral fellow Sung-Wuk Jang sorted through a library of chemicals to find those that could stimulate one of NGF’s “receiver dish” molecules on nerve cells, called TrkA. The way NGF works is to pull together two TrkA molecules on the cell surface.

“We were surprised to find that amitriptyline has these same properties,” Ye says. “This is an antidepressant that has been used for decades.”

Doctors also prescribe amitriptyline for chronic pain such as migraine headaches or the nerve damage caused by diabetes, he notes.

In laboratory tests, amitriptyline could protect neurons from oxygen and glucose deprivation or the toxin kainic acid. Only amitriptyline, and not other antidepressants, could duplicate NGF’s ability to stimulate neurons to send out “neurites,” small projections thought to be the beginnings of connections to other neurons.

Amitriptyline directly binds TrkA and a related molecule called TrkB, the authors found. Amitriptyline could also bring together a mismatched pair of TrkA and TrkB - a phenomenon not seen before, Ye says.

Also surprising was the finding that other tricyclic antidepressants, even those with a similar molecular structure such as imipramine, could not match amitriptyline’s ability to stimulate cells through TrkA.

In a model of antidepressant function called a “forced swim test,” amitriptyline’s effects do not depend on TrkA, because it still works on mice with modified TrkA genes, the authors found.

Recent studies have indicated that the presence of TrkB is necessary for antidepressants to function in mouse models. The relationship between amitriptyline’s ability to directly stimulate TrkA and TrkB and its antidepressant and pain-relief properties needs to be explored further, Ye says.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Reference: S-W Jang, X. Liu, C-B Chan, D. Weinshenker, R.A. Hall, G. Xiao and K. Ye.
Amitriptyline is a TrkA and TrkB receptor agonist that promotes TrkA/TrkB heterdodimerization and has potent neurotrophic activity.
Chemistry and Biology, 16, x-y (2009).

Source:
Holly Korschun
Emory University