Obesity
In the case of plantar fasciitis, the pain is mechanical in origin and usually disappears with rest. It can progress and lead to a bony growth called a heel spur, which, however, does not cause additional pain.
Causes of plantar heel pain: tear, after an impact... Why does my heel hurt?
However, plantar heel pain can have other, so-called mechanical, origins. Heel pain can be caused by a skin or muscle abnormality – such as a plantar wart or lesions of the soft tissues of the foot – by Achilles tendonitis – inflammation due to one or more tendon injuries – or by trauma to the heel. In this last case, it could be a fracture of the calcaneus (heel bone), a stress fracture – resulting from intense and unusual physical activity – or a rupture of the plantar fascia.
On its website, the French National Health Insurance (Assurance Maladie) mentions other, non-mechanical causes that can explain the onset of plantar heel pain. Heel pain can, for example, be a sign of an inflammatory disease, particularly ankylosing spondylitis. The symptoms are as follows:
Pain that occurs from the first steps but lessens during the day.
Possibility of seeing your heel swell.
Pain that moves from one foot to the other.
What diseases are responsible for heel pain?
In rarer cases, other inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can also cause heel pain. Finally, peripheral artery disease, which results in a blockage of the arteries, or compression of a nerve in the back of the foot can also cause heel pain.
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