Plantar fasciitis

Have you ever stepped out of bed after a nice relaxing night of sleep and felt a sharp, burning pain on the bottom of your foot? The pain improves as the tissues warm up and as your day progresses, but it never seems to go away. The condition I’m discussing today is plantar fasciitis or plantar fasciosis, depending on who you are trying to make happy. The plantar fascia is on the bottom of your foot, it runs from your heel to your toes. In the picture above you can see it’s attachments with the Achilles tendon, this will come into play shortly.

In athletes, simply over stretching or over use of the plantar fascia can be a cause. Usually P.R.I.C.E. treatment will do. Conversely, the condition often appears in high heel wearing, overweight- middle aged females with a sedentary lifestyle. The cause here is quite different. Look at the picture below. The artist has placed the foot in a position similar to how a foot would set in a high heel. Notice the big toe is slightly extended upward and the ankle is in a plantar flexed position. This puts a significant amount of strain on the plantar fascia. To make my point more clear, put your palm on your desk, point your elbow toward the ceiling, with your opposite hand pull one of your fingers toward the ceiling until your start to feel discomfort in your palm. A similar strain happens as a result of wearing high heels, but all day long. Now take that foot out of the heel, let the fascia relax for 8 hours, then rapidly stretch it....stabbing morning pain begins. Overtime you develop inflammation, hypoxia and scar tissue formation occur resulting in chronic plantar fasciitis.




Look again at the picture above. The heel is off the ground. This places the calf and/or the Achilles tendon in a shortened position, creating tightness and weakness. There is a research article showing Achilles weakness as a result of wearing a heel. Women you are not alone. Men, take your shoe off and place it on the desk. 90% of you will notice there is some type of heel lift (especially in dress shoes) and a toe spring (very front of the shoe that curls upward). This is doing the same thing as the high heel but to a lesser degree. I hope I have facilitated your thinking a little outside the shoe....

If you would like to receive my free 5 tips for home treatment of plantar fasciitis submit your email in the ‘follow by email’ box placed in the upper right corner of this page.