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CHICAGO (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It's not unusual for your feet to feel a little run down at the end of a long day, but when feet become persistently painful, there's something wrong. Heel pain is one of the most common complaints when it comes to sore feet and it can be debilitating.
Debbie Warner spends a lot of time on her feet. When she's not on a walk, she's training for her next triathlon.
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"I love it. I would do it for a living if I could, but I'm not that good!" Warner says.
Last year, intense heel pain stopped her in her tracks.
"At times, I didn't even want to go from my desk to the bathroom," Warner says.
Some experts say up to 40 million Americans have heel pain.
"The band of tissue at the bottom of the foot gets inflamed and it pulls and it gets tight and that causes pain," says Marlene Reid, D.P.M. a podiatric surgeon at the Family Podiatry Center in Westmont, Ill.
And that pain can be debilitating.
"I've had patients that have told me they crawl. It's so painful to walk that they crawl," Dr. Reid says.
Now Dr. Reid is healing heels with radio-frequency energy.
"You go through the skin without actually opening it up, without actually doing an incision," Dr. Reid says.
After mapping out the target points, Dr. Reid delivers the radio-frequency energy with a wand. It breaks up scar tissue and increases blood flow.
"The success rate so far is much greater than open heel surgery," Dr. Reid says.
Called the Topaz procedure, it takes less than 20 minutes.
"It's changed their lives. Topaz literally changes people's lives," Dr. Reid says.
After five months of intense pain, Warner had the procedure.
"It was pretty amazing that it worked pretty quickly," she says.
And just seven months later, she was able to finish her second Iron Man triathlon pain-free.
"I don't know what I would have done if I couldnt run again," Warner says.
The Topaz procedure is a quick, outpatient procedure, but does require light anesthesia. It's covered by most insurance plans and patients are generally back on their feet -- pain free -- in less than two weeks.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Illinois Podiatric Medical Association
http://ipma.net
TOPAZ Clinical Trial Website
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00189592
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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