Plantar Fasciitis

Helping Women Live Longer, Healthier, Happier Lives!

If your first few steps out of bed in the morning are extremely painful, particularly in your heels -- you might have plantar fasciitis. People with plantar fasciitis have described it as feeling, like a knife was being jabbed right into their heels (or other part of the bottom of the foot).

What it is

Plantar fasciitis is the inflammation of the plantar fascia, a web of connective tissue running from the heel to each of the toes.

The plantar fascia helps support the arch of the foot during movements such as walking or running. When this tissue becomes inflamed it can cause pain anywhere under the foot. Pain is most often felt in the heels and is usually worse first thing in the morning when the feet make their initial contact with the floor. Pain is also often felt after standing up following periods of prolonged sitting (long car rides, sitting at work or in the movie theater).

Who gets it

Candidates for PF include:

people who have jobs which involve prolonged standing
women
obese people (or people with recent weight gain - such as pregnant women)
diabetics
middle-aged folks
people with certain foot types (such as flat feet or high rigid arches)
people who where shoes that are too rigid or have poor arch support

How it's treated

Luckily, with proper attention and treatment, plantar fasciitis usually improves with in 8 weeks. However, it is important to be pro-active in getting the right care. Just ignoring it and hoping it will go away on it's own almost never works and can lead to a chronic problem.

This overuse condition typically responds well to a combination of: stretching (particularly of the Achilles Tendon), resting, ice, taping (by a PT or ATC), wearing supportive footwear, having an added heel cushion and using OTC NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen or Naproxen Sodium.

Patients with plantar fasciitis should avoid wearing sandals, flip flops and open back shoes (e.g. mules) all of which can aggravate the condition.

Other treatments include:

Wearing "night splints" (which force the foot into a stretch for the Achilles Tendon, thereby reducing the tension on the fascia at the bottom of the foot)
Having custom orthodics made
Physical therapy
Steroid injection
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy: a medical treatment using sound waves to stimulate healing
Surgery: rarely surgery may be necessary to actually detach the plantar fascia from its attachment at the heel. This is a last-resort, typically, because it would result in significant weakening of the foot.

How to avoid getting it in the first place

Regular stretching, wearing good supportive athletic shoes, training smart (and not increasing mileage too drastically), keeping the tissue at the bottom of the foot supple by rolling a tennis or golf ball, icing when tender, taking days off and cross training using non-weight bearing activities like swimming or biking can all help plantar fasciitis from occurring in the first place.

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is the author of Fit and Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever -- A Complete Weight Loss, Fat-Burning and Muscle Sculpting System