METATARSALGIA AND THE MORTON’S TOE (Long Second Toe)
Metatarsalgia is a “catch all term” used by medicine to denote any one of numerous aching conditions that affect the forefoot. Metatarsalgia is characterized by a pain, burning, throbbing and/or swelling on the ball of the foot. There are five metatarsal bones in our feet. The very end of these bones in the fore foot area is called the “head” of the metatarsal bones. This is what our toe bones are attached to. Classically one or more of these metatarsal heads push down abnormally causing the tissues directly under the 2nd-4th metatarsal bones to start to hurt, burn, or swell. This most often takes place over a prolonged amount of time, of anywhere from months to years.
Morton’s Toe is the real cause of Metatarsalgia
There are several reasons that are given for getting Metatarsalgia. Ask most doctors or go to most websites and they will tell you that shoe is the major cause of metatarsalgia. I do not believe so. After treating the human foot for over 34 years I absolutely feel that the reason for the abnormal pressure, which is the most common reason for metatarsalgia is due to the abnormal stress put on the fore foot caused by Morton’s Toe
In Morton’s Toe the first metatarsal bone, (this is the one that the big toe bone is attached to), is unnaturally short. Hence resulting in a short 1st toe, or the more classically longer 2nd toe, what is know as “Morton Toe”. Because of this shortness, the 1st metatarsal bone can not support all of the weight Mother Nature intended it to support. This excessive weight has to go somewhere and in the vast majority of the time, it is shifted onto the head of the 2nd metatarsal bone.
This improper shifting of the weight from the 1st metatarsal bone is what causes all of the pain, swelling and burning in Metatarsalgia, may also be the cause of a callous being formed under the metatarsal heads. Morton’s Toe (Long Second Toe) is a heredity condition, that is to say you are born with a short 1st metatarsal.
