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Plantar Fasciitis is a condition of inflammation of the plantar fascia, which is located on the sole of your foot from your heel to the toes.
Plantar Fasciitis can cause pain located on the bottom of your foot, mainly in three areas:
The symptoms of plantar fasciitis usually develop gradually over time.
A common symptom is a pain in the heel or arch of the foot that is worse when you first get out of bed in the morning or after sitting or standing for a long time.
Sometimes the pain runs alongside the three different parts of the plantar fascia:
The pain may also be worse after or during high-intensity exercise.
In some cases, plantar fasciitis can cause other symptoms, such as:
The most common cause of plantar fasciitis is an overuse or repetitive strain on the plantar fascia.
There are other risk factors that can be at the same time the principal cause or concause of plantar fasciitis, such as:
Anatomical abnormalities of the foot such as flat foot, Allux Valgus, and Ankle Valgus are the most common cause of receding Plantar Fasciitis.
The plantar fascia is made of collagen, a protein that gives it strength and elasticity. The plantar fascia helps to support the arch of the foot and absorb shock when walking or running.
The plantar fascia is divided into three parts:
The first approach to cure plantar fasciitis is to treat its symptoms.
There are a number of treatments available for plantar fasciitis symptoms, including:
When there is long-term plantar fasciitis, where the patient has experienced many recedes, we have to change approach to the cure it.
We have to find the root causes of the plantar fasciitis and treat them.
Most of the time, long-term plantar fasciitis comes from a structural issue of the foot or ankle such as a flat foot, low or high arch, or hallux valgus as discussed above.
One of the best methods to assess this kind of structural issue of the foot is a feet pressures scan or a high-tech posture assessment.
These assessments will be able to provide us with dozens of analytical data to identify all the possible causes of stress or anatomical anomalies of the foot and ankle.
Once we have identified all the root causes of our plantar fasciitis, we can treat them and, eventually, set up a specific exercise rehabilitation program.
I would like to show you a case study of recurrent plantar fasciitis in a runner.
He decided to get to the bottom of the issue with a running assessment to check what was wrong with his running technique and his feet, after experiencing recurrent plantar fasciitis on his right foot.
Apart from all his running technical issues, the most important cause of his recurrent plantar fasciitis was his grade 3 flat feet.
In the first image above, you can see a 3d feet pressures scan that highlights the excessive forces acting in the middle of the right foot ( Green Spot ).
In the second image above there is the entire feet pressure scan report. We can see here, inside the red circle, a peak of forces acting on the lateral and intermediate compartments of the right foot.
In fact, the focus pain symptoms of the runner were localized in that area of the foot ( arch and heel ).
Here are some tips to help prevent plantar fasciitis:
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