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 Spraining an ankle once is bad enough, but for those who repeatedly injure the same ankle, it can develop into a major long-term problem. A chronically unstable ankle will usually become arthritic over time, leading to chronic pain and difficulty running, walking, or even just standing.
The ankles have considerable stress placed on them, and once one or more of the supporting ligaments are damaged, the joint will probably never be 100% as stable as it should be, but with appropriate care, repetitive ankle injuries can be avoided and much of the degenerative arthritis that develops subsequent to joint instability can be prevented.
The primary way to achieve this is through exercises to strengthen the surrounding muscles enough to provide support that the damaged ligaments cannot. Most people who have sustained a significant ankle sprain have gone through rehabilitation for this purpose, but in many cases, the rehab exercises fall by the wayside after the major pain is gone, and over time without ongoing exercises to keep them strong, the muscles will decondition.
In a future post, I’ll be providing you with a video of exercises to keep the muscles around the ankle strong and supportive. Look for that in the next few weeks here on my natural remedies blog.  Until then, if you have already gone through ankle rehab, but you’ve stopped doing your exercises, I highly recommend you get back to doing them on a regular basis again. Your ankle may feel fine right now, but it’s better to put forth a little effort to keep it that way than to get lazy and allow things to deteriorate to the point where you’re having pain ankle trouble all the time and there’s not much you can do about it.
Until next time…
Dr. George Best
Tags: Foot And Ankle Problems, ankle sprain, arthritis, exercises, pain, rehabilitation
