My Plantar Fasciitis Pain

Acupuncture for plantar fasciitis

2010-07-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

In the quest for non-invasive treatments for plantar fasciitis, acupuncture has come up time and time again. This ancient chinese medical treatment involves the use of needles at various points in the body, that causes the brain to release natural pain killers. As soon as you mention needles, you know I shy away as much as possible if at all it can be avoided.

But many people do not mind the needles and may want to consider acupuncture as a treatment alternative for plantar fasciitis. The medical response is not overwhelming one way or the other. Some acupuncture specialists claim that their patients were cured; some traditional medical doctors dispute the claims.

So the question of choosing acupuncture is really up to the individual. It might be worthwhile to note that if you are a resident of the US, check with your insurance if they will cover the cost of the acupuncture treatments, since usually you cannot expect results in just one sitting. Generally several sessions are required and may be maintenance sessions may be required as follow-ups. Gather all the facts before making a decision.

EWST Plantar Fasciitis Treatment

2010-06-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

In my quest to learn more about plantar fasciitis treatment methods, I came across a technique called EWST. This stands for Extracorporeal shock wave treatment. Sounds like a complicated phrase, but essentially EWST for plantar fasciitis involves shooting high intensity sound waves into the area. The technique is not completely well understood yet, but several theories have been put forth as to why EWST is potentially a good candidate to be considered in the treatment of plantar fasciitis.

One of the theories is that since EWST inflames the area by design, creating new inflamed areas that trigger the brain to send nutrients and healing chemicals to the area. A second theory is that new blood vessels get created in the newly inflamed areas that are actually in close proximity to the affected plantar fascia, thereby triggering the healing process.

There are strict guidelines involving the usage of EWST for plantar fasciitis. Other simpler treatments need to be considered first before resorting to this procedure. But then again that is common sense too in my opinion.

Plantar Fasciitis Antifatigue Mats

2009-07-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Since I figured that people that stand or walk on hard surfaces for a major portion of the day are more susceptible to getting plantar fasciitis, and I was one of them, I wanted to look at ways in which the feet can be cushioned more and the load reduced.

Granted, I had already changed to shoes that offer more arch support, installed inserts in my dress shoes and so on, but is there anything else I could do. After some thought, I figured I could purchase anti-fatigue mats that are sold all over as a means to reduce pain due to my plantar fasciitis.

So I purchased and installed anti fatigue mats both near the machines where I stand all day, as well as a smaller size right in front of my chair at my desk. So my feet were generally resting on the anti fatigue mats rather than on the hard concrete flooring for the major portion of the day. I have not seen this reported anywhere, but many machinists and other people that stand all day in one location such as super market cashiers and such can get some anti fatigue mats installed at their workstations if they are suffering from plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis exercises

2009-07-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

How many times have we heard that diet and exercise are important to maintain good health? Well, the same is applicable to foot health too. By proper diet, you may be able to control your weight gain and by proper exercises, you may be able to alleviate pain associated with plantar fasciitis.

The set of exercises I concentrated on for my plantar fasciitis condition were really very simple. Prior to even getting out of bed, I would stretch my Achilles tendon for a few minutes. The same exercise was performed a few minutes before going to bed at night.

An additional plantar fasciitis exercise included taking a long skinny towel and rolling it over the ball of the foot; then keeping the knees straight I would try to pull the ankle back towards the head. This was performed both in the morning and in the evening.

There have been some reports of recommendations for the use of rolling pins to kind of gently massage the foot. Sounds like a good idea, but I did not practice these.

What I however did was to take some cold pressed sesame seed oil that is available from specialty spice stores, take quarter of a tea spoon and massage it on my heels, arches as well as the ball of the foot using my hands. This was done for both feet for about three minutes a foot prior to taking a shower. I figured the gentle massage might be of value in reducing the inflammation associated with plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis shoe inserts

2009-07-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in a previous post, paying close attention to shoes is the cardinal step in healing plantar fasciitis. Does not sound like much, but little details can sometimes make a big difference in reducing or eliminating pain by using plantar fasciitis shoe inserts.

In a related subject matter, a friend of a friend of mine was a truck driver that usually hauled goods coast to coast in an eighteen wheeler. In his mid forties, he started complaining of lower back pain. He went to many doctors, who put him through many tests and treatments, but the pain kept on persisting. Believe it or not, the last doctor he went to, took a cursory look at him and asked him to take his wallet out. He took it out of his pant back pocket. The doctor told him to start putting it in his side pockets from now on as a habit. Can you believe in a couple of months his pain went away? You see, with his wallet in his pant back pockets, he was constantly sitting in an imbalanced manner as he drove his truck, with the result that his spinal column was never in a straight proper posture and over time he started developing a painful condition. Get rid of the wallet from the back pocket, sit properly and there he was cured

Similarly, when it comes to treating plantar fasciitis condition, your shoes form the most important area to look into. Now, when purchasing inserts for shoes, ensure that both feet feel comfortable. Some people have different sizes for either feet. Purchase the right size insert for each feet. Thankfully, I do not have that issue, but that is not a big deal; you just need to be aware of your situation.

Again, sometimes, only one foot will be depicting plantar fasciitis pain. This does not mean that the other foot is okay. It may be that the non hurting foot is transferring all of the load on to the other foot and thus causing a problem. Address both feet and use inserts on both feet to get to the root cause of the problem.

Plantar fasciitis shoes

2009-07-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

About the single most effective treatment for plantar fasciitis is to pay full attention to changing shoes to facilitate healing and recovery. Sandals, flip flops and open back shoes should be completely avoided. This was not an issue for me since I never wore them anyway. Sort of being conservative, I always wore closed shoes, either dress shoes, work boots or sneakers.

There are several outlets that specialize in selling shoes for plantar fasciitis. I basically bought a pair on line for my work schedule. Inserts for my dress shoes were basically off the shelf items and they seemed to work fairly well, at least in my case.

In all cases, the goal of plantar fasciitis shoes is to provide sufficient support for the arch and heel and thus reduce the pain and inflamation. Wearing high heels and on the opposite end of the spectrum, wearing shoes with no heels are both bad ideas if you have this painful condition. Sometimes, I wonder how some women wear those extra high heel shoes and maintain their balance; I bet they do not have plantar fasciitis problems.

Take your time locating and finding shoes. People sometimes spend very little time trying shoes on and evaluating them; instead they simply look at the price and make a decision. More expensive shoes do not necessarily mean more comfort. Shoes should fit snugly without causing pinching anywhere in the foot. Sufficient cushioning is almost an imperative when evaluating shoes for plantar fasciitis.

Because of my work standing on concrete flooring all day, I decided to go on a regimen of changing and replacing my shoes every two months instead of the previous habit of buying only when they go on sale That alone proved to be a great help.

Another seemingly senseless point that I decided to concentrate upon, is the process of tying the shoe laces. I used to rush through in the past and many times the laces were actually getting looser and looser through the course of the day, with the result that at the end of the day when I returned home, I could simply slip out of my shoes. Not any more. I decided to take my time and tie shoe laces properly in the morning and re-evaluate the tightness several times during the course of the day ensuring that they were still snug and provided proper support for the heels. What an amazing difference they made.

Plantar fasciitis treatment options

2009-07-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

Being averse to any surgery, I started evaluating what are the treatment options for my plantar fasciitis. The easy ones were the first to be tried on and the progressively difficult ones to be reserved for later. This has always been my approach to every problem I face.

For example, when my lawn mower does not want to start easily, I spray some quick start fluid first. If that does not work, I empty the gas tank and the oil tank and replenish with fresh material. If that does not do the trick, I change the spark plug and air filter. If all of the above fail, then I take it apart completely and fix it. My body is a lot more valuable than my lawn mower, ( or so my insurance company says ), but I treat it with the same problem solving philosophy.

So what are the plantar fasciitis treatment options. Well, here are a few:

1. If you have gained too much weight recently, try to lose weight. This will not only help reduce the overload on the feet, it will also help your general health and well-bing.

2. Perform some exercises for the Achilles tendon every morning.

3. Wear night splints

4. Invoke the use of taping practices.

5. Start installing proper insoles in your shoes to provide additional arch support.

6. Get fitted for special plantar fasciitis shoes and purchase and use them.

7. If all of the above fail, get cortizone type local injections administered by your doctor for pain relief. This is not a fun option and is often quite painful.

8. If the previous option fails too, get plantar fasciitis surgery scheduled.

So there you go; this is the list that I had to work with. And I was determined to stay away from the last two options as much as possible and let the top ones do the trick.

Plantar fasciitis surgery

2009-07-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

I got to admit, I am a nervous wreck when it comes to doctors and surgeons, especially surgeons. I get nervous simply looking at a needle, let alone being told I need to be poked with one. Hence when I started thinking about plantar fasciitis surgery, I had nothing but scary thoughts going through my head.

I had never dealt with a podiatrist all my life; I used to wonder how these guys even made a living; I mean who would ever go to a foot surgeon for anything I used to think. But here I ws, suddenly thinking of getting a plantar fasciitis surgery done. Well, I decided to go the easy route first and started to gather more information and educate myself better before starting to panic.

Surprisingly, I learnt that surgery is the last resort for plantar fasciitis treatment Wow, what a relief that discovery was. Treatments including use of podiatric insoles, exercises, night splints and changing to shoes that provide proper arch support seemed to be the method most commonly followed. I could handle that, I felt.

Additionally, surgery could lead to further complications, I learnt, such as ruptures, infections, etc and so on. When all else fails, one could resort to plantar fasciitis surgery; if not the simpler treatments are quite effective.

What is plantar fasciitis

2009-06-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

In trying to understand my painful heel condition, I wanted to get down into the trenches, roll up my sleeves and learn as to what is plantar fasciitis. And here is what I learnt. The bones in the bottom of our feet are covered by a band of tissue that is very thick and these are termed as plantar fascia. When these plantar fascia get severely inflamed, the condition is known as plantar fasciitis.

Now, broken heel spurs were thought of as the cause of plantar fasciitis, but that is not necessarily true; the underlying conditon is what causes the pain. Biomechanical problems that cause extensive pronation of the foot can cause this condition. It is the inflamation that is the underlying root cause. Note also that it makes sense that the pain is most severe in the mornings or after a long period of rest and inactivity, such as what I felt after lunch time breaks, because then the plantar fascia has had enough time to tighten again and lose its flexibility.

Plantar fasciitis does not develop overnight nor do the symptoms present a sudden onset. This condition develops over time. If you started putting on too much weight, then you are putting undue burden on your heels; if you wear shoes that provide next to nothing in arch support, you are potentially inviting plantar fasciitis to your door. Losing flexibility in the feet tissue is a big problem.

My plantar fasciitis was so painful, I thought may be the only option would be to go to a podiatrist or foot surgeon and get surgery performed. On the contrary, what I learnt came in as a big surprise.

What causes plantar fasciitis

2009-06-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

Once I latched on the term plantar fasciitis in my head, I decided to find out what causes plantar fasciitis. I started looking in all the wrong places. First I thought may be I stepped on a massive piece of steel and damaged my heels. That could not be the case because there is no massive piece of steel at my work. Then I thought may be I stepped on a rock the wrong way and may be I sprained my heels or caused some damage similar to that. That could not have happened, since as I said my activities outside of work are extremely limited.

In any case, I started applying sprain ointments that are available over the counter such as Bengay and Flexall. They seemed to help a little bit, may be it was a placebo effect, but the repeating pain did not go away. As sure as the sun rises in the east every morning, my pain due to plantar fasciitis, my self diagnosis, came back. Then again, I thought I was looking the wrong way.

I performed further studies and learnt that plantar fasciitis generally affects people, both men and women in their later adult lives and it does not happen overnight, but builds over time. People that stand on hard surfaces for extended periods of time are more prone to getting affected with plantar fasciitis my research indicated and as I said, in my case I stand on hard concrete flooring all day, every day No wonder I was suffering from heel pain caused by plantar fasciitis.

My doubts were clarified and my questions answered. Now I wanted to learn more about what is plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis symptoms

2009-06-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

For all of my life, I had no clue as to what the term plantar fasciitis meant. My discovery of plantar fasciitis symptoms came through a natural self evaluation of my body’s behavior. Here is how I discovered plantar fasciitis. A brief background will make this clear.

I have led a generally healthy lifesyle all my life thus far and being a good husband and father bringing home the bacon by putting in long hours at work, every day, seven days of the week. My work environment requires long periods of standing with small interludes of sitting at a desk. I felt that this physically active lifestyle is a lot better than some of my friends that sit at a desk all day, doing either IT, administrative or other customer service work. In addition to standing, I physically work with my hands and body, moving, pulling, lifting and so on. Thus when I had to get a physical done, the doctor was surprised to find that all of my vital numbers fell perfectly in place even though I do not go to a gym or do any weight training and so on.

I attribute my excellent physical condition to my workplace environment. So, in addition to providing myself and my family a means of living, my workplace has helped me maintain good health and I am thankful for that.

But just about a year ago, something strange started happening. Every time I would get up in the morning, I started feeling severe pain in the underside of my heel and would last for about an hour or so. As with everyone, I would get up, go about my morning rituals, go to work and after about an hour and a half of my morning routine, the pain would be gone.

The pain would return after lunch time, which I usually spent about an hour at my desk. Severe pain in my heels would be felt. Again, after about an hour, the pain disappeared. This kept repeating every day. And I said to myself, I have not banged my feet against anything or caused any physical damage; I do not have any other health problems. Upon studying and doing more research on my own, I determined that I was suffering from a condition called plantar fasciitis.

I decided to learn more about this condition.

Legal and medical disclaimer

2009-06-27T07:38:00.001-07:00

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2009-06-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

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