The Best Treatments for Plantar Fasciitis
According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report, it is estimated that globally one million population suffers from plantar fasciitis every year.
What is Plantar Fasciitis?
Plantar Fasciitis, as a quick description is known as the most common cause of heel pain. Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the connective tissue that supports the heel.
It is one of the most common causes of heel pain, especially among people who are active or have a job that requires standing or walking a lot.
The most common symptoms of plantar fasciitis are pain, tenderness, and sensitivity to pressure on the sole of the foot. It can also cause heel spurs.
Causes of Plantar Fasciitis
There are many plantar fasciitis causes and the most common ones seen by a Podiatrist include:
- A sudden change in physical activity
- Weight gain
- Standing for prolonged amounts of time
- Your foot structure
While it can be an uncomfortable condition, there are luckily many treatment options to improve your foot or ankle pain.
If you want to learn more about the best treatments for plantar fasciitis.
Keep reading this guide for everything you need to know from plantar fasciitis diagnosis to treatment options!
Treatments for plantar Fasciitis
Rest
Might seem obvious yet one of the hardest steps to follow. Of course, we all have things to do and rest is generally the last on the list.
However, one of the most important plantar fasciitis treatments to ease your foot pain is to rest your foot.
When possible, it is important that you keep your foot elevated.
Whether you have plantar fasciitis from an injury or from chronic inflammation, elevating your foot will help reduce the swelling and will improve your heel and arch pain.
If you keep doing the activities that caused your plantar fasciitis, it can lead to worse pain. Make sure you take time off your foot when possible!
Improve Footwear
If you deal with chronic foot pain or plantar fasciitis, you must improve your footwear. Often, this is the cause of chronic foot pain!
Even if it is not the cause, it will definitely exacerbate the pain and make it harder to recover.
First, you should invest in shoes that have a well-structured heel counter and good arch support as a treatment for plantar fasciitis.
This way the shoes will take on the shock absorption rather than your heels.
Ditch the Stretches and Grab a Foam Roller
You may be wondering why I’m advising you to ditch the stretches. So here’s why.
The whole reason you’re here in the first place is that you’ve injured the plantar fascia by overstretching the area which caused the micro-tearing.
So why would we try stretching it further?
The plantar fascia has a poor blood supply so injuries to this tissue are difficult to heal which is why many health professionals will advise that the injury generally takes about 6 months to heal.
The best way to encourage and assist the healing process is to encourage blood supply and heat to the area. This can be achieved by rolling the bottoms of your feet with a tennis ball.
Roll your feet from your heels to the arches to the balls of your toes for 2-3 minutes before taking your first steps in the morning and at the end of the day when you’re ready to go to bed.
Don’t Forget Your Calves!
When Plantar Fasciitis is the topic, there’s a good chance the tension in your arches is encouraged by the tightness in your calves.
So grab that foam roller and roll your calves too for a few minutes per day.
If you don’t believe in the power in this?
TRY THIS!
Foam roll only one calf for roughly 3-4 minutes. Then take a walk. You should feel a major difference in the side you rolled out.
But of course. You be the judge.
Roll your feet and legs twice a day for the best results.
Use Athletic Tape
Finding ways to support your foot and keep it from moving too much can help you improve your plantar fasciitis. One way you can do this is with athletic tape.
You can find ways to tape your foot to prevent moving it in ways that will make your plantar fasciitis worse. While this can relieve the symptoms of plantar fasciitis and reduce the stress on your ligament, it is not a permanent treatment.
Still, you can use it to ease your pain and even as a preventative measure for foot pain.
Try Night Splints
Night splints are another easy way that you can treat plantar fasciitis. You can wear these splints overnight and they will keep your ankle in a neutral position.
This is helpful because it keeps you from flexing your feet as your sleep, which can shorten your plantar fascia. The splints will stretch your calf and fascia while you sleep and will allow your fascia to heal in an elongated position.
However, the limitation of this method is only wearing them at night may not be long enough as you’ll be right back up in the morning weight bearing on the damaged heels again.
Surgery for Plantar Fasciitis
As an Australian Podiatrist. I have never needed to recommend or refer any of my patients to a surgeon for surgical options. Custom orthotics have always been the long-term successful solution.
The Best and Most Permanent Solution
Orthotics For Plantar Fasciitis
Now if you have done all the above and it hasn’t helped. Then I cannot recommend orthotics enough.
You have two options.
You can try the generic over-the-counter insoles you can purchase from the chemist or online stores.
If they help then you’re good to go.
BUT, I have had so many people come in to see me that have not been successful with the off-the-shelf options.
The reason for this in many cases is quite simply, the store-bought insoles are just not structured enough to hold up the arch from the tension your body weight is loading onto your heels.
That’s where CUSTOM Orthotics come into play.
The main goal is to relieve the pain by correcting the biomechanical cause.
Whether it is excessive force when the heel strikes or the stretch to the plantar facia caused by flat feet.
The irritation causing pain to the heel area needs to be relieved.
When the damaged structures are not constantly irritated and can relax. Then the tears can start healing.
Custom orthotics do this in 2 ways.
- By decreasing excessive shock taken by every step.
- Creating a high enough arch support to avoid the plantar fascia from overstretching.
Looking for the Best Treatments for Plantar Fasciitis?
We’ve Got You
There are many possible treatments for plantar fasciitis.
By trying each of these methods, you can find one that works best to ease your heel and arch pain!
If you are looking for the best treatments for plantar fasciitis, Unisoles can help!
We provide custom foot orthotics to improve your arch support and decrease the shock to your feet when you are walking.
Book a complimentary TeleHealth appointment with our team today to order your custom orthotics and to see how we can help treat your plantar fasciitis pain!
