Treatment Of Plantar Fasciitis

Many people have had this situation: when they wake up in the morning, they feel a tingling pain in their heels; after walking for a period of time, the pain can be relieved, but once they have been walking for a long time, the pain will increase again. There may be slight swelling of the soles of the feet near the heels. When pressing the heels with your hands, or making toe-up movements, the bottom of the heels will be painful.

These people are likely to have a common foot problem-plantar fasciitis. Plantar fascia is a fan-shaped fascia tissue located on the sole of the foot that extends from the calcaneus to the first to fifth metatarsophalangeal joints. Its function is to maintain the shape of the arch of the foot and absorb the reaction force from the ground when walking or exercising. Plantar fasciitis becomes inflamed due to overuse or injury, which is common in people who need to walk or carry heavy objects for a long time at work, obese people, and people with flat feet or high arch feet.

Plantar fasciitis should be treated as soon as possible, otherwise it may worsen the condition and may produce heel spurs.

Acute phase: physical therapy such as ultrasound, hyperthermia, acupuncture can be used to reduce inflammation, or anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs can be taken under the guidance of a doctor to relieve pain. Before getting out of bed, straighten your legs, stretch the soles of your feet with a towel, and then walk on the ground to reduce the pain when you get up and go to the ground in the morning.

Chronic phase: Choose different treatment methods according to different causes, which can reduce the recurrence of plantar fasciitis.

1. If plantar fasciitis is caused by long-term walking, try to reduce the time of standing or walking, or try to rest your feet during a long standing, and try to avoid fascia-stimulating exercises such as climbing and running until the pain disappears. .

2. If it is caused by weight problems, you should lose weight and reduce the burden of heavy loads.

3. If it is caused by flat feet or high arch feet, you can choose to wear orthopedic insoles for plantar fasciitis. Mild patients can wear heel cushions to transfer part of the pressure from the heel to the forefoot to relieve pain. Severely ill patients need to wear soft insoles with arch support to enhance shock absorption while reducing the strain on the plantar fascia. If necessary, you can organize custom shoe insoles to better fit your foot shape and achieve better results.

4. Doing more calf stretching exercises can increase the flexibility of the calf muscles and reduce the pulling on the plantar fascia.