Your feet are often the most overlooked body part when it comes to exercise. Yet, your feet take a vast majority of stress while exercising. Listen to your feet during your workout; failure to acknowledge your feet during exercise can lead to one of more than 300 foot ailments including foot tingling. Foot tingling is often the result of an underlying medical condition and should be looked at by a doctor.
Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome
Tarsal tunnel syndrome causes inflammation around the tarsal bones -- the bones located in the back of your foot. This condition is often related to nerve damage and can cause numbness and tingling on the arches of your feet. Spending too much time walking, running or exercising can lead to excessive pressure on these damaged nerves. Tarsal tunnel syndrome can be treated with rest and icing your feet. This can help to reduce inflammation and repair nerve damage. If conservative measures fail, surgery can be performed to treat tarsal tunnel syndrome.
Diabetes
A diagnosis of diabetes has the potential for foot-related complications. Diabetes can cause foot numbness or tingling; this is often referred to as diabetic neuropathy. Neuropathy can damage the nerves of your feet, which can cause you to lose your ability to feel heat, cold and pain. Without feeling, you may not notice if you have injured your foot -- blisters, cuts, fractures or sprains. Your injury may not be noticed until your skin breaks down and you develop an infection. Due to this risk factor, diabetics should make regular trips to a podiatrists and wear therapeutic shoes to help prevent nerve damage.
Intermittent Claudication
Intermittent claudication causes cramping in the legs and tingling in the feet. This condition normally occurs during exercising and walking. The pain is caused due to lack of blood flow in the legs. Symptoms normally subside with rest and may only be present during certain types of physical activity. Walking long distances, walking fast and moving uphill are the most common times intermittent claudication occurs. Pain can occur in one or both legs. If you experience frequent claudication, talk to your doctor. This could be an indicator of a more serious condition including peripheral artery disease.
Injury
Tingling in your feet after exercise can be the result of a previous injury or surgery to your foot. Injury to a nerve or pressure due to scarred tissue can cause numbness in your feet. This condition can often be termed parathesias. It causes abnormal burning or tingling the feet. You may experience a "pins and needles" feeling. This often occurs as the result of trauma but can also be the result of infection, inflammation or vitamin insufficiency. Parathesias does not have to affect both feet. Past trauma to one foot can cause numbness and tingling in just that foot. It is best to contact the physician who treated your initial injury or who performed your surgery, if you suspect your tingling is due to past trauma of your feet.
References
- Foot and Ankle Center of St. Loius: Exercise and Your Feet
- MedlinePlus; Numbness and Tingling; Apr. 21, 2009
- American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons; Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome; Dec. 18, 2009
- American Diabetes Association: Foot Complications
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Peripheral Artery Disease and Intermittent Claudication; May 13, 2009
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