Healthy Living Video Series #2 of 4: Stress Fractures

Stress Fractures

Here is Dr. Pelto's second video in a series of 4.

Transcript Below

hi and welcome back to healthy living

I'm dr. Donald Pelt oh and I want to

answer a common question I get in the

summertime

why does my foot hurt when I start to

exercise many people in the summertime

they start to increase the activity they

start to walk outside because the

weather is nice they go on vacation

where they walk maybe four or five not

miles when they're not used to it and

then their foot starts to hurt they may

or may not have swelling and they're

wondering why does my foot hurt there's

probably hundreds of types of problems

that can happen but one of the most

common problems is called a stress

fracture now why a stress fracture

what's so stressful about a stress

fracture let me show you a picture here

of a stress fracture if you look at this

picture on the left hand side you can

see that there's a little white line

that's going through the bone and

there's a red circle around it this is

showing an area of stress fracture let

me show you what happens with this foot

model when you have a stress fracture

you increase the amount of walking that

you're doing and there's a lot of

increased pressure going through your

foot your foot and your muscles and your

tendons are all used to transfer your

foot pressure and all this compression

up the leg and to help you go forward if

you do a lot of walking

you can put increased pressure

underneath one of the bones what happens

to the bone is that the bone swells yes

you can get swelling inside of your bone

and that eventually that swelling can

cause a little bit of a crack in the

bone and if we go back to this picture

you can see that actually on the pit on

the right hand side the second bone is

longer than the first and the third bone

and that is one of the mechanical causes

so this bone here on this image is

actually longer you're going to have

increased pressure on that area due to

the mechanics that's just one reason

that you could have a stress fracture

there are other reasons a lot of people

as they become older they start to have

weakening of the bones or osteoporosis

if you have this and you do a lot of

walk

you could get a stress fracture easier

other people they try to increase their

activity they say you know I'm going to

join I'm going to do my 5,000 steps a

day with their Fitbit and they do all

this walking and then their foot starts

to hurt because they're not used to it

but why to explain it simply your body

is used to doing a certain amount of

activity you've been doing that activity

for years and your muscles tendons and

your bones are all used to that amount

of activity if you increase it by 50

percent or a hundred percent your bones

aren't used to it and there's a greater

chance of injury because the bone has to

adapt and for the bone to adapt and for

the bone to get stronger it takes time

and if this doesn't happen you're going

to have an injury and that can be a

tendon injury but more commonly it's a

bone injury there's a there's a certain

type of this fracture it's called a

marching fracture that happens and you

see this a lot of times in young

athletes when they go into the military

because when they go into the military

they start doing a lot of activity they

start to a lot of marching and their

foot bone is not strong enough and it

causes a stress fracture what happens

with the stress fracture you get a

little bone break and your body tries to

heal it so what are the treatments you

can wear a more stable shoe you can wear

one of the walking boots and actually

for a lot of people that do a lot of

running we just say keep running because

a stress fracture doesn't go throughout

the bone it's usually only a portion of

the bone if you keep running it'll

either get better over time which is six

to eight weeks or it'll break totally

through in which case you know it'll

take six to eight weeks to get better

but during that time you might find

yourself limping you may find you have

swelling in the foot and sometimes if

you go to the doctor right away it

doesn't show up on the x-ray but you

thought what I thought fractures are we

show up in the x-ray well they don't

because sometimes a fracture if it's a

stress fracture it's only one portion of

the bone and you don't see the fracture

until you see the healing because if we

go back to this picture you can see that

there are this this area around the bone

it's called bone callus and that bone

callus is kind of like a straw

to help stabilize the bone so that it

can heal once the bones healed that bone

callus goes away so how do you avoid

getting a stress fracture go slow when

you start to work out only increase your

activity about 20 percent a week you can

double or triple the amount of walking

and the amount of activity but go slow

and also you'll avoid other types of

foot problems as well be aware as well

the type of shoes that you're wearing

many people wear their worst shoes for

the hardest activities so for example

let's say your shoe is six months or a

year old and then you decide well I'm

going to wear the shoe now when I go on

a long walk or when I mow the lawn and

that doesn't give you enough cushion in

the shoe and it can cause a stress

fracture if you want to learn more about

stress fractures please go to drpelto.com and you can find more information

out about this condition thank you

Author

Dr. Donald Pelto Dr. Donald Pelto is a Podiatrist at Central Massachusetts Podiatry, in Worcester and Westborough. Author of several books on foot health, he also speaks Portuguese and Spanish. He likes to go on family hikes and loves learning and talking about health related topics and healthy life hacks. Watch some of his interviews about health and video lectures on youtube.com/drpelto.

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