Your plantar fascia acts as a shock absorber, supporting your arch and supporting your foot under normal circumstances. If the tension on the bowstring is too high, it can cause small tears in your fascia. Repeated stretching and tearing can cause fascia irritation or inflammation, which can lead to adhesions and other tissues in the fascia. What causes foot pain? There are many possible causes of foot pain, including heel spurs and plantar fasciitis. One possibility is mechanical misalignment.
Tension
This causes excessive tension to the fibrous plantar facia, which can cause pain and inflammation. Poor footwear can also lead to degeneration of your fat pad under the heel. Shoes without a proper heel cup or worse, flip-flops without a heel cup (flipflops) can quickly flatten the fat pad. The tough tendon-like tissue at the bottom of your foot can be shortened by wearing high-heeled footwear, such as western-style boots. Chronic inflammation of the fascia could also be a cause of foot pain.Gout, inflammation, injury, nerve and collab disorders, trauma, and inflammatory arthritis can all cause heel pain.
Heel Spur
What causes a heel spur? A heel spur is a bony growth on the heel bone or bottom. The heel spur is often caused by an inflamed tendon. This tendon attaches to the plantar fascia and crosses the arch of the foot. It inserts on your heel (calcaneous). Your body will attempt to support the tendon and start to deposit bone to protect it if it becomes inflamed. A heel spur’s size or presence does not always indicate how much pain you are experiencing.There are many reasons that heel spurs can occur, including being overweight, wearing poorly fitting shoes, high heels, biomechanical foot problems, and complex motions such as forefoot, heel and ankle motions.
Symptoms
What are the symptoms of heel spurs? Heel pain is often worse in the morning, especially when you take the first few steps or after a period of rest. While some relief is possible after activity, pain can return after prolonged periods of standing or walking. The condition can become more severe and you may feel pain even when you are resting. The plantar fascia is being stretched, causing the pain. The most common symptoms are sole and heel pain, but you may also experience ankle pain.
The pain is usually sharp and located at the arch between your arch and heel. In some cases, the pain may go away by itself. In most cases, however, the longer you wait for treatment, the more chronic your condition will become, making it more difficult for you to achieve the results that you desire. There are many options for conservative treatment.
Treatments
Simple shoe modifications, such as a well-designed foot insole, padding, support, and support, can help relieve tension on the plantar fascia. Support for soft tissues and stressed joints can be provided by foot orthotic inserts. They are often designed to increase shock absorption. Many patients have seen improvement in their quality of living through custom orthotics. A plantar fasciitis night-splint is another effective appliance. This is basically a sock that you can wear at night to keep your fascia stretched. It promotes plantar fascia lengthening.
Another popular treatment is ice massage. Place a paper cup in a freezer and add water to it. Once the cup has frozen, peel it down and expose some of the ice. Have someone massage your arch with the block of Ice until it becomes numb. If padding and splinting are ineffective, the next step I use with my patients is to begin breaking down fascial adhesions in their feet.
This is best done at home by placing a golf ball on the ground and placing your foot on top. Use moderate pressure to adjust the ball to the arch of your foot. If the pressure is too intense, you can substitute a soup can or a tennis ball. If discomfort and pain persists after trying these conservative measures, you should seek the advice of your healthcare professional to try a more aggressive approach. Our office offers creative solutions to break down adhesions. These can be done either manually or with specially designed tools.
Physical Therapy
The next step in our dynamic approach is physical therapy. To speed up tissue healing and recovery, we use ultrasound and cold (soft laser) laser. We also show you how to stretch in a specific way to help you regain more functional movement patterns. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, or rehabilitate any disease, symptom, or condition. This article is intended for informational purposes only. A healthcare professional should evaluate your condition.