"Why does my arch hurt?"
"I get a sharp pain in my heel every morning I get out of bed.
"When I've been on my feet too long, the bottom of my foot hurts so bad."
Do you say these things? You may have plantar fasciitis.
The plantar fascia is a ligament that helps support the arch of your foot and gets stretched when you put weight on it and every step you take.
"Itis" is Latin for inflammation, so plantar fasciitis is a diagnosis of inflammation of the plantar fascia. Inflammation takes place when you have an injury and the body is trying to heal. Research is showing that most cases of plantar fasciitis is not an "itis" but is instead an "-osis" which reflects degeneration. This is why rolling on a frozen bottle might not make your symptoms go away.
At Artisan Physical Therapy, your PT will try to figure out a few distinct things in your evaluation - what tissue is injured or irritated and then the why it is injured/irritated/painful. Often both need to be treated the sore tissue needs to be calmed down and then that factors that led to the injury need to be changed and/or alleviated otherwise it will be perpetually irritated.
Common factors that lead to plantar fasciitis or fasciosis include:
- Insufficient arch support - going barefoot, wearing flip flops, or shoes without arch support or very flexible soles
- Tight ankles and calve muscles
- Weak hip (gluteal muscles)
- Excessive body weight
- Increasing activity too quickly (deciding to train for a marathon or get in shape drastically from prior level of activity)
- Weak foot muscles or inappropriate muscle use/activation
Just because you have arch or heel pain, it doesn't mean you have plantar fasciitis. It could be a tendinitis or tendinopathy of a foot or ankle muscle or an issue in the joints of your foot. A quality physical therapy exam will clarify this for you. As mentioned above knowing which tissue is irritated allows for specific, targeted treatment to get rid of your pain and get you back to pain free walking, running and whatever else you love and need to do.
Think you might have plantar fasciitis? Take the first step towards health and get a PT evaluation to get quality manual therapy to temporarily decrease the pain in your foot and learn exercises to keep it away by learning how to reduce the stress to the plantar fascia and learn what activities to avoid a do instead to allow it to begin healing today.
Let's Get to the Source - and TOGETHER - Let's Get Moving!