If you ever suffered from Plantar Fasciitis, you know the pain can take away all the happiness from life. I have experienced this pain at such crucial moments when I absolutely didn't need it. Today I want to give you clear directions to Plantar Fasciitis treatment and how to get rid of heel pain in shortest possible time.
As you would know, there is no magic wand "plantar fasciitis treatment" though we surely can speed up the healing process without taking any risk or paying hefty doctor fees.
There are different reasons of pain in your heel. At the outset, you might not be even aware of the exact cause of the pain.
Just to give you an example of diverse causes of heel pain, you could be a long distance runner or you are overweight or your job requires long hours of continuous standing. You might have not done exercise for a good period of time and possibly increased your activity suddenly. May be you already had foot related problems like flat feet or high arches.
Whatever plantar fasciitis treatment we talk about, it has to be based upon the cause of your heel pain. Although I am a fan of natural treatments, I will talk about both both medical and natural cures. These treatments will not only get rid of the pain but also eliminate the root cause. The methods will also stop future recurrence of the pain.
I strongly urge you to act early. If unattended, pain aggravates with time, so does plantar fasciitis and general heel pain.
To treat plantar fasciitis, you need to follow these 3 main steps: Heal inflammation – Stretch – Strengthen
Heal the inflammation:
What worked for me in healing the inflammation was using ice on the painful area. If you are looking for instant way to heal the inflammation, this is an option. However, I do understand ice might not be best option for many people at all times of the year.
A popular way to do this is using frozen water inside plastic bottle. You can roll the feet over plastic bottle containing frozen water. Ice pack is another idea if that suits you more. To have any real impact on inflammation, this process must be followed thrice a day for approx 30 minutes. Best time to do this is after your feet does some walking, running, sports or any intensive activity.
There is however, a little more sophisticated way to achieve this. There is a tool called icyfeet. It is a strap-on cold pack to be tied on your foot.
There is also an option to take the medication route to be consumed internally by taking anti-inflammatory medicines. If you are like me, I personally don't prefer medicines and drugs. In such a case, you have an option of anti-inflammatory gels or arnica oil (topically).
Contrasting Hot bath with Cold Bath: Get a container with hot water with approx temperature around 105°F/40°C and dip your foot for 4 to 5 minutes. Now, get another container of cold water with approx temperature around 50-60°F or 10-20°C and dip the same foot for a minute or so. You need to repeat this process 5 times. Remember, you never start with cold water. It always begins with hot water and ends with cold water.
Stretching exercise:
- Daily or alternate day massage coupled with stretching exercises for your calves and feet will help.
- You can also consider a functional Plantar Fasciitis night splint to further stretch the affected plantar fascia ligament or achilles tendon.
Strengthening exercise:
- Trying to pick and lift objects like pens, marbles or golf balls with your feet will strengthen the tissue.
- Another popular and effective strengthening exercise is the “pull-the-towel” method. It works like this: Sitting on a chair, pick up the towel placed in front of you (on the floor) with your feet, trying to pull it closer towards yourself.
Above methods do work if applied with discipline. These are fairly long term methods to treat Plantar Fasciitis.
Crucial Factor in Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
In my personal experience, our best plantar fasciitis treatment is strengthening the feet. Sadly and for some weird reason, most affected people are never clearly informed about this simple fact by doctors or podiatrists.
In addition to reducing the scar tissue and controlling the inflammation, strengthening the affected foot seems to be the best alternative in long-term scenario. Barefoot walkers seldom have foot problems when compared with people who can't live without shoes with fancy cushions and support.
Considering this fact, it is highly probable that the feet of people who hardly use fancy shoes and related foot support are inherently strong. Our dependence at readily available foot comfort has made our feet vulnerable to inflammations and pain like flat feet or plantar fasciitis.
We are caught in a catch-22 situation when we use modern foot comforts. We use them and become dependent on plantar fasciitis shoes, splints or orthotics. Our (naturally strong) feet becomes "weak" by dependence as if waiting for inflammation to occur at slightest pretext.
Restoring the inherent strength of our feet after the inflammation and scar tissue is taken care of, should be a long term goal. This approach will not only help in getting rid of plantar fasciitis but also ensure that it doesn't occur in the future.
As I pointed out at the beginning of this post, it's not one-size-fits-all dress. Treatment of plantar fasciitis depends upon the cause of inflammation. If you take the right approach to treatment, you can not only make speedy recovery from your foot pain but also prevent future problems.
To give you a simple example, health supplements and dietary changes can potentially have a big impact on how fast you get rid of the inflammation.
During the course of my suffering from this agonizing pain,
just when I had accepted that I can only reduce the pain but never become free from it, I was told about a complete step-by-step treatment system to reduce pain and cure plantar fasciitis for good. I have used and found it very powerful approach. For me personally, it reduced my recovery period from months to days.
Unfortunately, the solution plan is protected by copyright and I am not allowed to discuss the contents here. To anyone looking for fast pain relief in 72 hours or so, I would highly recommend Exercise Rehabilitation Specialist Dr Jeremy Robert’s Fast Plantar Fasciitis Cure™.
Another effective approach is Jim Johnson's
The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution (link takes you to Amazon). However, don't take the 5-minute phrase too seriously, you got to give it 24 hours to take effect.
If you are able to rest your foot so that the inflammation gets reduced, plantar fasciitis can heal by itself in general, after some time. However in the unfortunate scenario when all the above treatments fail to work, there are offcourse unconventional, not-so-simple alternative treatments available too.
Nothing is guaranteed to work but some treatments are more risky or expensive or painful. This section of plamtar fasciitis cure is best explain in the topic heading "Alternatives". Alternatives are never ideally the first choice.
I strongly believe and always recommend sticking to a good treatment plan (also see Is There any Quick Plantar Fasciitis Treatment?) before trying more “unconventional” treatments (alternatives). All said and done, if your heel pain is a tough nut to crack, your plantar fasciitis refuses to get healed, you can try these alternative treatments:
- Cortisone Shot for Plantar Fasciitis: Cortisone is a powerful injection to give instant relief from inflammatory pain. Cortisone can be thought of as intermediate measure before drastic treatments like plantar fasciitis surgery. Cortisone shots work instantly so it may become "addictive" for someone using it to relieve any pain, including plantar fasciitis. However, it doesn't cure the cause. It just temporarily suppresses the symptom.
- Plantar Fasciitis Surgery: In plantar fasciitis surgery, the main objective is to cut the plantar fasciitis ligament to reduce tension in the tissue. In the surgery, there are either incisions or partial removal of the plantar fasciitis ligament.
- Plantar Fasciitis Shockwave Therapy: You might have heard about Shockwave therapy in the context of treatment for kidney stones. Over last decade, Shockwave Therapy has gained popularity in treatment of other situations as well. If you have tried most conventional plantar fasciitis treatments in almost one year period and failed to see desired results, you can give Shockwave Therapy a try.
It is quite possible if you have been a long time sufferer from plantar fasciitis, it could be a chronic problem. Doctors are of the opinion that if you have suffered from plantar fasciitis over say, more than a year and half, you could be experiencing chronic pain. If it's chronic pain it means there is no inflammation of the tissue.
In this scenario,
Shockwave therapy does exactly opposite of typical Plantar Fasciitis cure. Shockwave therapy actually gets the plantar fascia inflamed before combating the inflammation. It therefore is not the ideal first step for people who have been suffering from plantar fasciitis for only some time.
Conclusion
Treating heel pain is not half as complicated as many people make it out to be. I urge you to keep it simple and effective. Simple stretching exercises for Plantar Fasciitis is the most effective starting point, together with an additional arch support like shoes with good cushioning, insoles or compression socks. Keep things simple - trust me, it's the most effective way to get pain free. I hope my article gave you interesting insights and answers to the questions you had regarding plantar fasciitis treatment.
