Plantar Fasciitis

What is Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar Fasciitis is a very common cause of pain in the heel. The plantar fascia is strong ligament on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone to the ball of the foot, so plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of that ligament. It most commonly affects the insertion of the ligament into the heel which is where the most common location of pain is. The symptoms come on gradually and get worse with time. A classic sign of plantar fasciitis is worse pain under the heel during those first few steps in the morning or getting up from rest. While there are some other conditions that can cause this, plantar fasciitis is the most common.

What is the Cause of Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is really only caused by one thing: there is too much load being placed on the plantar fascia. There are a number of factors that can lead to that increased load and increase the risk for plantar fasciitis occurring. The most common risk factor is body weight. Those with a higher bodyweight put more load on the plantar fascia and increase the risk. Higher levels of activity such as standing all day at work (especially on concrete surfaces) or running marathons also put a lot of load on the plantar fascia.
Poor foot biomechanics (such as a flat foot) and tight calf muscles are also very common risk factors for plantar fasciitis.

How to treat Plantar fasciitis?

The only real way to get rid of plantar fasciitis is to deal with the risk factors that caused it. It is easy to find a zillion recommendations online for how to deal with plantar fasciitis, but it really just comes down to the loads in the plantar fascia. There are plenty if alleged miracle cures that might have worked for a few people, but won’t help most.

The first thing to do is get some pain relief. There are medicines (both over-the-counter and prescription) that can be used in the very short term to get some relief if needed. Massage with something like a tennis ball, glass coke bottle or the Pediroller can give some relief. Hot packs followed by something like fisiocrem can be a great help for the symptoms. Do this at least daily. Sometime, if it is really bad, then strapping the foot me be used to allow you to keep working or keep running while the problem resolves.

If a higher body weight is the issue, then the best long term strategy is loosing weight (there is plenty you can do in the short term that will help).

If poor foot biomechanics such as a flatter foot are part of the issue, a good initial step is something like a simple arch support or even the Archies can be useful. If something more substantial or customized is needed, then seeing a Podiatrist is probably a good idea.

Calf muscle stretching is very important for those with plantar fasciitis. It should be done daily and take weeks, if not months of doing it at least daily before the full benefit is obtained. Night splints for plantar fasciitis are a great way to speed this up, especially if that first step in the morning is bad.

FootStore.au products for Plantar Fasciitis

FootStore.au have a range of reasonably priced products that can help with Plantar Fasciitis.

Related Plantar Fasciitis Products

Also See:

Foot Self Massage with an old Coca Cola Bottle

For more information, check out the Podiatry Arena threads on plantar fasciitis. While the information there is aimed at health professionals, it is a resource on all aspects of the condition, especially the research evidence.