Associated symptoms

A symptom often associated with burning toes is numbness that is felt on the same or adjacent toes. Also, sensations such as a slight tingling sensation, similar to the sensation when a fallen asleep foot “wakes up” again, are relatively common. In technical terminology such phenomena are called “paresthesias”.

Another accompanying symptom is cold feet. This accompanying symptom for burning toes seems a little paradoxical at first glance, but it can be easily explained. Well supplied with blood tissue is warm.

During sports, for example, the body is better supplied with blood and one gets warm. Conversely, tissue with poor or poor blood supply is cold. As already mentioned, poor blood circulation can cause a burning sensation in the toes.

Here you can see that the same cause can express itself in a completely different way. The reason for this is that many factors play a role in the development of the disease. If the symptoms seem so far apart, the cause can be relatively similar.

Diagnosis

If the foot pain occurs not only after wearing tight shoes or similar strains for a long time, but repeatedly and without plausible reason, the suspicion of an illness is quite obvious. In order to find out whether one is actually ill, the following diagnostic methods should be considered. A blood count can show whether there is a vitamin deficiency and thus be the reason for the pain. Furthermore, it is possible to find a possible cause by means of neurography, i.e. measuring the nerve conduction velocity. The same can be achieved by electromyography.

Treatment

Of course, the treatment depends on the cause of the burning of the toes. If a blood test shows that there is a lack of vitamins, the treatment is based on the administration of the missing vitamin. If there is a circulatory disorder, the patient should reduce his alcohol and nicotine consumption, as both substances have a very bad effect on the blood circulation.

Regularly massaging and keeping the feet or toes warm promotes blood circulation and alleviates symptoms. In the case of gout, the patient’s diet should be monitored more closely. High-fat meals and foods rich in purine, such as meat or beer, should be avoided if possible.

The aim is to keep the uric acid level in the blood as low as possible. Drug treatment of gout is also possible. The administration of the active drug substance allopurinol prevents increased production of uric acid and thus relieves the symptoms of gout.

If the patient is suffering from diabetes and there is a suspicion that this is causing the burning in the toes, the doctor in charge should check whether the patient’s lifestyle, diet and insulin administration is adjusted to the correct level. In addition, the patient should make sure that his shoes are comfortable and not too tight, which will prevent further aggravation of the pain. These topics may also be of interest to them:

Therapy of circulatory disorders
Circulatory disorders due to smoking
Nutrition for gout