If you’ve ever woken up in the morning with a sharp pain in your heel and turned to Dr Google to find out what is causing it, you have probably diagnosed yourself with Plantar Fasciitis.
Plantar Fasciitis (also known as Plantar Heel Pain or Plantar Fasciosis) is an incredibly common and painful injury that contributes for 15% of the total visits to Podiatrists in Australia.
Most of the heel pain patients we see at Wagga Podiatry Plus tells us the pain is a sharp pain, generally in one foot, generally first thing in the morning or after sitting and generally painful in the evening.
By nature it is a progressive condit
ion, meaning that it starts of non threatening, niggling in the background before getting worse and worse.
What is the Plantar Fascia?
The Plantar Fascia is a thick band of connective tissue that begins at the bottom of the heel bone, runs up the length of the arch and connects past the balls of the feet. It plays a vital role in the way that our bodies absorb shock when we stand, walk and run.
I often describe it as a tight elastic band that helps recycle the energy that we absorb each step. When our foot hits the ground, our foot is designed to pronate (ankle roll in, arch lower), during this motion the Plantar Fascia len
gthens and stores this energy. As we begin to prepare to push off the ground our foot supinates (arch lifts, foot rolls out slightly). It is now where the Plantar Fascia acts as a rigid level, we push off the big toe and it propels us forward in an economical and efficient way.
What causes it and why does it get so painful?
Plantar Fasciitis is the result of degenerative irritation of the Plantar Fascia. Simply put, the Plantar Fascia is overused and overstretched. It is generally an accumulation issue and develops over a period of time, the repetitive strain causes microtears in the Fascia and this becomes inflamed and degenerated.
There are a number of factors that increase the risk of developing Plantar Fasciitis. These include
- Sudden increase in day to day loads (increasing your running training for city to surf, starting a new gym routine, walking your new puppy twice a day, walking to work in the spring sunshine etc etc)
- Poor Footwear (Wearing the wrong shoes at the wrong times for the wrong activities)
- Weight gain (Putting on the covid kgs, pregnancy etc)
- Poor Biomechanics (feet pronating and rolling in too much or not enough)
- Walking Errors (Taking heavy and long strides, hitting the ground heavily with the heel)
- Weak foot and ankle muscles (Intrinsic muscle weakness, Tibialis Posterior weakness etc)
- Tight Calf Muscles
How do we get rid of it?
The good news is Plantar Fasciitis can be relatively simple to treat. The most important thing it to identify and change what has caused the issue. This is done by your Podiatrist asking lots of questions and doing a thorough biomechanical assessment.
From there we may use treatment such as:
- Foot and ankle strengthening. (Plans made specifically for you, to target the specific weaknesses that have contributed to the injury)
- Stretching plans. (To strength and lengthen any tight muscles contributing to the problem),
- Foot taping with either Rigid or Flexible sports tape
- Gait retraining
- Posture training
- Prescription of foot orthoses. (Where appropriate and only when necessary, to allow the injured area to heel)
- Footwear changes. (Don’t worry, we won’t throw away your heels or favourite slides)
- Load modification (changes to running programs)
- Shockwave therapy (Sounds scary but is pain free and incredibly effective)
- Ultrasound therapy
Without sounding to cliché, every case is individual and treatment plans will be specific to the individuals’ goals and the factors that have contributed in the first place. At Wagga Podiatry plus we use the most up to date evidence based research to guide our treatment plans to get you back on to your feet quicker.
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