josh tree wrote:
Wider shoes, wider shoes, wider shoes. You can get rid of it without surgery, for sure. Everything else above, also, but for me it's mostly about having enough width, and not tying my shoes too tightly.
This.^ Josh tree is 100% right.
Get wider shoes. The bones of your forefoot are being squeezed together. It's like this. Squeeze the knuckles of one hand together. Notice how the center knuckles bow upwards a little because they don't have enough room. Well, that's what's happening with your foot. The toe box is too narrow and it forces the metatarsals together. One or more will slide up a bit to fit in the shoe. When the foot hits the ground the knuckles (metatarsals) are forced to together. Over time this causes inflammation. Over prolonged time, it causes a calcium buildup.
The solution is wider shoes and thinner socks. I mean, THIN socks. It's hard to find super thin socks so I get womens Danskins socks womens size 8-12. They're 5 pair for $6, paper thin, and made out of coolmax type material.
If you feel ANY binding of the forefoot, don't buy that shoe or try a half size bigger. I routinely replace my laces with elastic laces and skip the bottom eyelet with laces. If I still feel binding in the forefoot on a shoe I can't return, I cut a one inch slice in the material where the tongue is sewn to the shoe. When I put my foot down I can see that slice widen, which tells me the shoe was too narrow. If I still feel binding, I throw the shoes away.