What is Plantar Fasciitis?

What is the Plantar Fascia?
To understand plantar fasciitis, first you should understand what the plantar fascia is. The plantar fascia is a band of connective tissue that runs along the sole of the foot from the heel to the balls of your feet. Bruising, over activating, or over stretching this ligament and often causes pain on the bottom of the foot and heel pain. Often plantar fasciitis can be associated with heel spurs. Interestingly, the pain is often not associated with the heel spur as was once thought.

 

What is Plantar Fasciitis?
Plantar Fasciitis is essentially inflammation of the fascia on the bottom of the foot. We see patients present with plantar fasciitis frequently at Curl Curl Chiropractic and Warringah Mall in Brookvale on the Northern Beaches, and through our work with chiropractic and podiatry, we get fantastic results with patients suffering with this condition.
Plantar fasciitis presents as pain on the bottom of the foot, and is usually worse in the mornings or after long periods of rest.

Foot Pain Northern Beaches Warringah Mall Brookvale
Plantar Fasciitis Warringah Mall Brookvale Chiropractor Daniel Ryken

What are the symptoms of Plantar Fasciitis?

Daniel Ryken Chiropractor Brookvale Plantar Fasciitis Foot Pain chart

Plantar fasciitis typically starts as pain under the heel in the arch of the foot. It mainly occurs first thing in the morning or after long periods of rest.

Your heel pain is worse with the first few steps, and then often improves with activity as your foot warms up.

How does Plantar Fasciitis Progress?

As Plantar Fasciitis deteriorates, the pain will often present more often

  1. No heel pain - Normal
  2. Heel pain after exercise
  3. Heel pain at the start of exercise and after exercise
  4. Heel pain at the start, during, and after exercise
  5. Heel pain all the time

Further degeneration and delayed healing will result in bony deposits in the plantar fascia. This often results in the formation of heel spurs.

Risk factors for Plantar Fasciitis

Warringah Mall Chiropractor Daniel Ryken Plantar Fasciitis

At Curl Curl Chiropractic, we've noticed a number of risk factors associated with people's everyday activities that leave them more prone to suffer with plantar fasciitis:

Certain sports – Activities that place lots of pressure on the heel bone and the attached tissues like runners, aerobics and dance.

Overweight – Weight creates a higher mechanical load on the plantar fascia

Pregnancy – Weight gain, hormonal changes and swelling that come with pregnancy can often lead to extra pressure on the plantar fascia.

Flat-footed or high-arches – Changes in the arch of your foot changes the shock absorption ability and can stretch and strain the plantar fascia.

Wearing the wrong shoes – Wearing shoes with poor arch support or stiff soles.

Prevention of Plantar Fasciitis

  • Maintain a healthy weight to minimise the stress on the plantar fascia.
  • Choose supportive shoes. Avoid stiletto heels or excessively low heels. Go for shoes with a low to medium heel with good arch support and shock absorption.
  • Don’t wear worn out runners. If a sport requires a lot of running, replace the shoes with in 650 kilometres of use.
  • Start an activity slowly, making sure you warm up appropriately before you start playing sport.
  • Allow adequate recovery time after training.
  • Train appropriately for a sporting activity to ensure you are ready.
  • Drink adequate water before, during, and after exercise.
  • Check your environment to avoid hazards.
Plantar Fasciitis prevention Northern Beaches Chiropractor Warringah Mall

Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis

There are a number of things you can do to help yourself when you have plantar fasciitis. Through our work with physical therapists, podiatrists, and other chiropractic professionals, we have come up with a list of things we often recommend to our Northern Beaches patients with plantar fasciitis:

  • Stretch – Stretch the fascia of your foot. There are a couple of ways to do this, but one common way of stretching the plantar fascia is standing, facing the wall. Prop your toes up against the wall, keeping your foot on the floor so that the toes stretch. Hold for a count of 15-20 seconds, and repeat a few times per day.
  • Stretch – Stretching your lower leg muscles, especially your calf muscles, often helps with plantar fasciitis. It is important to stretch both the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. Your chiropractor will teach you how.
  • Ice massage – Seen as though plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the fascia on the bottom of the foot, it will often respond well to ice. We recommend freezing a bottle of water, and simply rolling the bottom of your foot over it.
  • Arch Supports – A commercial insole with an arch support can help support and strengthen you plantar fascia, whether you are an under or over pronator (flat footed). Wear the support in all shoes as much as possible.

 

Northern Beaches Chiropractor Daniel Ryken Brookvale Plantar Fasciitis
Ice bottle massage chiropractor Northern Beaches Curl Curl Chiropractic

For more information about plantar fasciitis, or more specific advice, feel free to check out the following links, or give us a call on 9401 0114 to see how we can help you!