Your likelihood of suffering another sprained ankle rises after the first one.
Would you want to hear a shocking fact I just discovered in the New York Times? In our country, ankle injuries occur to over 28,000 individuals every day. And the majority of them do it while exercising, whether it be running or other sports. This indicates that sprained ankles are the most prevalent sports injury in the United States.
But first, let us look closer to home. If those injuries were dispersed around the country, Texas would have 560 daily ankle injuries. There are certainly at least 100 Houstonians twisting their ankles today alone since it is one of the largest cities in Texas. So why don’t you contact a Houston podiatrist like me for assistance?
“Walking Off” Ankle Sprains Cause Recurrence
There are plenty of you strong men and women out there. You convince yourself, “It’s only a sprain,” if you haven’t broken any bones. And you continue limping through your regular tasks in the hope that the agony would eventually go away. Well, I’m here to tell you: STOP! A statement was issued by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and they made it clear that ankle injuries should never be taken lightly.
Why? Untreated ankle injuries leave you vulnerable to a variety of health issues. These include persistent pain, re-injury, impairment, and even early onset of arthritis. And the recurring injury issue is what worries me the most. Because your body is more susceptible to further ankle sprains after one. Unless you specifically target that ankle with workouts. (More on it later.)
What Can You Do If You Think Your Ankle Might Be Sprained?
Here’s what I want you to do if you think you may have sprained your ankle.
First, stop and rest from any painful movement. Sit down and raise your foot. (To avoid swelling, try to maintain it higher than your heart.) Apply ice to your ankle now, covering it with a small towel to prevent direct skin contact. Keep it in place for up to 20 minutes and repeat several times a day. Finally, to further reduce swelling and stabilize the area, consider wrapping your ankle with an ACE bandage.
If your pain goes away the next day after doing these precautions, you probably avoided being injured. However, if even a little discomfort persists a day or two later, you’ve probably sprained your ankle. And you must come into the office immediately. Or your injury could not heal properly.
Risks Associated with Untreated Ankle Sprains
The likelihood of reinjuring your ankle sprain is greatest if you have previously sustained one. If it seems strange, let me explain. Your ankle becomes weaker after an ankle sprain due to a phenomenon called proprioception.
Proprioceptors are sensory neurons. They are located in tendons, muscles, and joints. Their responsibility is to maintain your body’s balance when you move, preventing you from wobbling. Proprioception is still developing in young children. (This explains why they move like drunken sailors.) But as individuals get older, they start to lose it, which is why you start to fall more often.
Let’s go back to those sprained ankles. Your proprioceptors are damaged when you sprain an ankle. And as a result, maintaining balance becomes more difficult for your body. When confronted with obstacles, your ankle is more prone to wobble and sprain again. Fortunately, you can restore your proprioceptors and strengthen your ankle. But first, you need to have your ankle injury completely healed.
Furthermore, your chance of developing arthritis rises after an ankle injury. (Especially if you don’t get treatment for an ankle sprain and it doesn’t heal properly.) The most frequent cause of difficulty is osteoarthritis, which affects the joints in your foot, toes, and ankle. However, your chance of developing psoriatic arthritis may rise if you already have psoriasis. A swollen finger or toe (called dactylitis), tight, painful joints, or pitting in your toenails are some of the early warning symptoms of this condition.
Treatment for Ankle Sprain
Are you ready for some more terrible news? You may recall that I advised you to attempt RICE, or rest, ice, compression, and elevation, if you believed you had sprained your ankle. However, I have to admit that this at-home sprain therapy doesn’t work as well as you may assume. According to the new NATA research, using anti-inflammatory medications to lessen discomfort is also not the best course of action.
Houston foot doctor treats ankle sprains.
So what do you do if you hurt your ankle? Dr. Thomas W. Kaminski, the lead author, states this: Seeing a podiatrist and receiving an accurate diagnosis are essential for healing from an ankle injury.
By doing so, we can assess the damage’s extent and decide how to best address it. Strengthening activities are also likely to be used to treat an ankle injury, naturally, after your discomfort and inflammation have subsided.
Exercises to Build Ankle Strength to Prevent Ankle Sprains
Basketball is one of the numerous activities that may result in ankle sprains. There are strategies to make your leg muscles stronger, albeit they are not entirely preventable. And they can prevent additional ankle sprains in addition to those brought on by basketball.
Want to build your strength? Try these three workouts. As suggested by Coach Tim Grover on Stack.com, these exercises may help increase ankle strength before an injury occurs!
1. Single-Leg Calf Raise
This exercise strengthens the muscles surrounding the ankle. And it makes them more resilient to shocks caused by landing or direction changes.
How to: Do a single-leg Calf Raise. Instead of dropping down and starting the next rep as you’ve reached the top, concentrate on waiting 5 seconds for your heel to hit the ground again. For each repeat, this means 1 second up and 5 seconds down.
Sets/Reps: 3 x 12–15 each leg
2. Single-Leg Ladder Drills
Running speed ladder workouts while standing on one leg trains your ankles to support your weight in all directions.
How to: This is where your imagination may run wild. Use both feet to warm up while climbing a speed ladder. Perform each routine with only one foot once you’ve warmed up. Do a few jumps, stop, and then go backwards, sides, and diagonally. There are many options, but be careful to just use one leg at a time and complete equal amounts of workouts for both legs.
Sets/Reps: 15x ladder (choose different patterns)
3. Plate Raise
Your front shin muscles, which support the stability of your ankles, will get stronger as a result of this.
How to: Start with a 10-pound plate. Place the edge of a plate over your toes while standing, then dorsiflex your foot to elevate the plate with your toes. Increase the weight of the plate as tolerated, but concentrate on raising it for one second and lowering it gently for five seconds.
Sets/Reps: 3 x 12–15
These workouts to strengthen your ankles might perhaps be useful for prevention. But they are not foolproof. Don’t walk through the pain if you’re concerned that your unlucky ankle twist resulted in a sprain. As soon as your ankle is hurt, make an appointment with DeNiel Foot and Ankle Center. In order to avoid additional injury or long-term harm to your ankle or foot, we’ll start treating your ankle sprain right away.
