Plantar fasciitis (that second word pronounced fash-ee-eye-tis) is a condition in which you are experiencing pain in your plantar fascia, the tendon that connects your heel to your toes, which reveals itself in a variety of foot pains.
Most notably, when you step on your foot after a night of rest and you feel unable to put any pressure on your foot as it sends a shooting pain to your heal and throughout your foot. Plantar fasciitis if not treated can become a chronic condition. Therefore, it is important to know what causes plantar fasciitis as well as how you can prevent it!
Plantar fasciitis is caused from an overuse of your plantar fascia!
This means that those who are most susceptible to Plantar fasciitis are those who are overweight, women (if you think about the use of heels and such), and runners who wear shoes that are too new and or too old that their feet are not properly supported putting excess pressure on their plantar fasciia.
Also those who walk a bit different such as “pidgeon-toed” walking also have an increase risk!
Plantar Fasciitis is treatable!
Unfortunately, it isn’t an easy fix if it becomes a chronic condition; pushing you to options such as medication and surgery. However, that isn’t to say that if you were to begin suffering of plantar fasciitus that 90% of the people in your position were able to resolve it without surgical assistance!
Traditional approaches to treatment often include: 6 weeks of consistent and daily “icing”, stretching, NSAID therapy, strapping and taping, and over-the-counter (OTC) orthoses. Counseling in regards to how you can alter your activity, as well as choice of shoe gear, is important especially for preventing relapse! After 6 weeks, persistently difficult cases should be treated additionally with a night splint and, possibly, an injection, along with the initial regimen for another 6 weeks.
You can prevent plantar fasciitis!
There are a variety of stretches that you can perform in order to prevent plantar fasciitis in the long run, including the “runners stretch” in which you brace yourself against a bar, table or wall and have your left or right foot far enough in front of you and behind you to get a nice stretch in your calf muscle, feet flat on the ground and parallel not turned out.
Additionally, ballet exercises such as flexing and pointing your toes and warming up the muscles groups in your ankle and feet on a regular basis, in a non-strenuous manner, can be a great tool as well!
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[Source: Alamo Family Foot and Ankle Care]
