Understanding what our bodies are telling us is a key way we can remain in the best possible health, even into old age.
From minor aches and sore spots to problems that may require remedy, maintaining good fitness requires understanding your body and not ignoring any pains that may come up.
What is Plantar Fasciitis and what are some warning signs that you may have it? - Let´s find out.
In addition, we will review potential causes of Plantar Fasciitis, as well as treatment options, both non-surgical and surgical.
Also known as jogger’s heel, Plantar Fasciitis effects approximately 1 out of ever 10 people at some point during their lives.
More often then not, the Plantar Fasciitis will grow as a gradual problem, increasing in pain over an extended period of time until it becomes unbearable.
As an increasing number of Americans are hitting retirement and having Plantar Fasciitis related problems, science and medicine has responded in kind, providing new and innovative ways to handle and approach Plantar Fasciitis issues.
Warning Signs That You May Have Plantar Fasciitis The best way to determine whether or not you have Plantar Fasciitis is to pay attention to your foot.
Poke it gently, and see where the pain is coming from.
If the pain is coming from the bottom of your foot, especially near your heel, then it may be Plantar Fasciitis. In addition to poking your foot, pay attention to how much pain you feel when you first wake up.
Usually, the pain caused by Plantar Fasciitis will be worse when you first wake up, especially with the first few steps you take.
Finally, pay attention to when you have been spending long periods of time either standing up or are getting up from a seated position. Periods of inactivity can sometimes trigger the pain.
Understanding the causes of Plantar Fasciitis first requires knowing a little more about your plantar fascia. Your plantar fascia is primarily responsible for Plantar Fasciitis.
As you walk and stretch, it acts like as a shock absorber, helping to reduce the impact on your feet as you walk.
In addition, it acts like a bowstring, supporting the arch of your foot.
Through repeated use, small tares can begin to form in the plantar fascia.
When stretching and moving around your foot, this will irritate the damage and make it worse. It will eventually become inflamed if not treated.
Plantar Fasciitis can be caused by any number of the following conditions. If you fall into more then one category, then the chances of getting Plantar Fasciitis increase dramatically.
If you work on your feet all day, then you increase your risk of developing Plantar Fasciitis.
The more hours you spend walking, the less muscle mass you have in your legs, and the more varied your activity, the greater the chance that you will get Plantar Fasciitis.
Being above your recommended weight level will lead to an increased chance of Plantar Fasciitis. The more weight you have, the more pressure you are putting on your plantar fascia.
The increased weight will wear down your plantar fascia quicker, leading to an earlier onset of Plantar Fasciitis.
Plantar Fasciitis can also occur if you have problems with either your foot or the way you walk. Your stride for example can cause Plantar Fasciitis to occur.
If this is the result, then simply changing how you walk may help.
In addition, if you have naturally flat feet or otherwise suffer from foot related problems, your chance of getting Plantar Fasciitis will increase.
Exercises that place more stress on the plantar fascia, including ballet dancing, dancing, and long-distance running, all increase your risk of Plantar Fasciitis.
Plantar Fasciitis is most often seen in individuals between the ages of 40 and 60.
There are a wide variety of non-surgical treatments that will cause Plantar Fasciitis to go away in between 4 to 6 months. In fact, roughly 90% of all cases fit this category.
Before ever considering a surgical option, check with your doctor to see what treatment options are available to you.
Depending on your age and the nature of your condition, you may have several different treatments to choose from.
For the small percentage that will not recover through noninvasive means, surgery may be the only option. Once the 6month period is over, other treatments have been attempted, and your doctor agrees, it is time for surgery.
Seen as a last resort, endoscopic plantar fasciotomy has a 76% reported success rate and requires finding a specialist who understands the procedure intimately.
Lets take a look at the leading causes for Plantar Fasciitis. Those causes on the top are generally more common then the causes towards the bottom of the list.
How old are you? Plantar Fasciitis strikes men and women most often when they are between the ages of 40 and 60.
Due to changes in the body as well as changes in life, the conditions for Plantar Fasciitis reach their maximum potential.
Simply put, the more weight that our plantar fascia has to hold up, the quicker it will ware out.
This is a problem for people who are overweight, and an even bigger problem if you are obese.
In either case, by losing the weight, you reduce the pressure and give your ankles and heels time to recover.
This is especially true if you are experiencing Bilateral Plantar Fasciitis, or pain on either side of your foot at the same time.
There are several underlying medical conditions that may show symptoms in your plantar fascia, including diabetes and a compromised immune system.
Regardless of the underlying medical condition, a more extensive an in-depth examination should take place to determine what is wrong.
If you have flat feet, trouble walking, or an unnatural stride, then Plantar Fasciitis becomes an increased problem. Fixing this problem can be simple.
With either insoles or a change to how you walk, you may be able to eliminate the pain you feel relatively quickly.
Plantar Fasciitis increases if you spend your day on your feet. The more you move around, and the greater variety of movements you do without rest, the increased chance of developing Plantar Fasciitis.
#6. High-Stress Exercise May Lead to Plantar Fasciitis Like it or not, some of the ways you stay healthy may be increasing your risk of Plantar Fasciitis. Running is one of the most popular exercises where there is an increased risk to the Plantar Fasciitis.
In addition, dancing and especially ballet both place incredible stress on your Plantar Fasciitis.
There is a chance that you may have an existing stress fracture or pain that is causing Plantar Fasciitis. An examination and possible x-ray may be necessary to determine this.
A triumph of evolution and practicality, our foot and ankle are incredible when you think about it.
All of our weight, sometimes in excess of several hundred pounds, is placed upon our two ankles and feet.
Through a complex set of musculature, bones, and muscle memory, we are capable of walking, running, jumping, and moving throughout our world without a second thought to our ankles and feet.
Only when something goes wrong do we begin to take notice.
Lets take a moment to review the basic anatomy of our feet and ankles.
Designed as a brief guide to this region of our body, we will look at the muscles, bones, and purpose of these particular parts of our body in our lives.
With that out of the way, we begin with the part of our body furthest away from us, our toes.
Even something as simple as a toe is complex when you view everything that goes into its design.
First, all five toes, except for the big toe, have 3 bones in them, known as Phalanges.
While the big toe only has the distal phalanges (the one furthest from the foot) and the proximal phalanges (the one closest to the foot,) all other toes have an intermediate bone known as the middle phalanges.
On the top of every toe grows nails, designed to help support the ends of our digits.
With our toes, we can better balance, shift our weight, and quickly react.
As an interesting thought experiment, pay attention to your toes the next time you go for a walk. You may be surprised how often you use them without even knowing.
There are several conditions that effect our toes, including gout, bunions on the big toe, ingrown toenails, mallet toes, claw toes, and Morton’s neuroma.
If you believe something may be wrong with your toes, you should get it checked out immediately.
Given the crucial role that toes play in balance, treating your toes early can save you a lot of hassle later in life.
In the central part of our feet, you can find several different bones, including the talus, the cuboid, the navicular, and the cuniform bones.
These bones are central to our success in walking.
Held together by muscle and tendons, these bones react to our weight, and are designed to deal with the stress and strain associated with walking/running.
In addition, they are often considered pyramidal in shape, as they explain the bump at the top of the center of our foot.
The center part of our feet is an excellent place for several medical conditions to occur.
A common problem in the center of the foot is Plantar Fasciitis.
Effecting approximately 1 out of 10 Americans over the course of their lifetime, Plantar Fasciitis is caused by a wearing out of the plantar fascia.
Being over 40, overweight, having bad walking posture can all increase the chances of Plantar Fasciitis.
Another common central foot problem is athletes foot, which usually results in skin irritation around the bottom of the feet, requiring daily treatment.
Gout, which is the inflammation and crystal production between joints causing severe pain, can also occur here.
The Tibia and Fibula form the parts of the ankle that we are most accustomed to seeing.
In addition, there is the calcaneus bone at the back of our foot.
This bone is the largest bone in our feet. Within the ankle, all of our complex motion is made possible.
The Achilles tendon, which connects the calf muscle to the heel of our foot, makes running and walking simple.
The heel and ankles of our feet is another place where osteoarthritis may occur, causing deformity, swelling, and pain.
In addition, our heels are subject to heel spurs and calluses over the course of our lives and ranging from manageable to painful.
Due to the complexity of our feet, figuring out solutions to various conditions may require understanding the anatomy and using targeted cures.
Outside of that, there are some simple ways to improve the overall quality of your feet.
The first is to lose weight if you are above your recommended weight level. Additional weight adds additional pressure to your feet and the complex system of bones, muscles, and ligaments that comprise it.
By losing weight, you give all of this a break. Physical therapy, insoles, and antibiotics can also be used to treat a range of conditions that may come about through your feet.
Finally, if the problem refuses to go away or is based in a part of the foot that cannot be directly addressed, then surgery may be the only option left to you.
Pain of any type can be debilitating and impact your lifestyle in a negative way. This is especially true when you are dealing with pain in your feet and heels.
Since you rely on your heels for support, it can be difficult to impossible to resume normal levels of activity while dealing with heel pain.
Plantar Fasciitis is the most common type of heel pain that currently exists.
It stems from a strain or overuse of the plantar fascia. This means that you need to know how the plantar fascia functions within the foot and what steps that you can take to minimize your risk of being diagnosed with this heel pain condition.
Plantar fasciitis can be a condition that is long term and only worsens with time.
What is the Plantar Fascia?
The plantar fascia is a ligament that can be found within your foot. It is essentially a band of tissue that is design to offer support for your arch. It is what connects your heel bone to your toes.
This means that with every step you take or movement that you make, you are relying on your plantar fascia to provide some type of support. It is possible to strain your plantar fascia through any type of movement or to weaken it over time.
When your plantar fascia becomes strained or weakened, it will result in swelling and inflammation that can cause even more pain.
This means that your heel will become very painful for you to walk or stand on.
If the bottom part of your foot hurts when you walk or make a move, you more than likely are dealing with Plantar Fasciitis.
A strain of the plantar fascia is what occurs first, but over time the strain can result in tiny tears of the plantar fascia. It is when the tiny tears occur that inflammation and swelling become most noticeable.
Plantar fasciitis will normally always worsen to the point of tearing unless you stay off your feet at the first sign of pain.
There are some type of people that are more likely than others to deal with plantar fasciitis.
Who Is Most At Risk?
The people that are most at risk for dealing with plantar fasciitis are those people that have very high arches or arches that are incredibly flat.
Having arches on either side of eth spectrum can be a telltale risk that you should be aware of.
People that have flat or high arches rely on their plantar fascia at a higher rate for support and in turn put more stress on this ligament. The result is that the plantar fascia will become weakened and be more prone to being torn.
People that walk or stand for long periods of time on a regular basis are also much more likely to have to deal with this type of heel pain.
This is especially true for people that are overweight and putting more stress on their plantar fascia as a result.
If you have tight calves or do not wear proper fitting shoes, you are also at risk for being diagnosed with plantar fascia. It is important to be aware of the risk factors and make an effort to make necessary changes to limit your risk of damaging your plantar fascia.
Plantar fasciitis is a painful heel condition that normally affects people that are more active. This type of injury can be very annoying and persistent.
Getting rid of plantar fasciitis is not easy and many people have to learn how to deal with the pain.
This means that it is important to know how to limit your risk of having to deal with this type of heel injury.
One of the best ways to lessen your risk of this injury is to relax more often. You need to give your lower legs, ankles and feet a break from time to time.
Overdoing it is often the cause of plantar fasciitis, so you need to get in the habit of resting regularly to make sure that you do not put too much stress on your plantar fascia.
If you have tension at any part of your legs, you will be more likely to strain your plantar fascia, this means that you need to get a lot of rest and take it easy whenever you notice tension in your legs or calves beginning to build.
It is also a good idea to change up your stride to help prevent against plantar fasciitis. If you land with a mid-foot strike you will be much less likely to deal with this type of injury or pain.
Landing evenly on the middle of your foot will help to dramatically lessen the strain put on your heel and help you to avoid this very painful injury.
The Achilles tendon has been a subject of discussion dating back centuries and first seen in mythology.
It is one of the most essential tendons that you have in your body and if you aren’t careful while exercising or exerting yourself, you could experience Achilles tendinitis.
This guide will tell you all about the tendon, how it can be injured, and what you can do to remedy the pain.
What is the Achilles Tendon?
The Achilles tendon is located in parts of your calf and in your heel.
It is the important piece of tissue that helps to connect the muscles in your calves to the back of your lower legs and the bones in your heel.
It can be a simple injury to treat entirely at home, though you may want to seek counsel from a doctor before you start selftreatment. You should also expect to be off of your feet for a small period of time.
Who Experiences Achilles Tendinitis?
This difficult injury can happen to relatively anyone but it is most prevalent in athletes such as runners. Individuals who drastically increase their level of activity such as the length of their run may be more likely to incur this type of injury. Middleaged athletes are also prone to Achilles tendinitis.
The most prevalent symptom of Achilles tendinitis is the pain that you will experience. In most cases it will start as a dull and mild ache that you’ll experience either in the back of your leg or right above your heel.
It will become more painful right after exercise and you may experience episodes of extreme pain throughout the day if you continue strenuous exercise.
Two other symptoms that could be sure-fire signs of tendinitis are stiffness and tenderness, both of which will also be more noticeable when you exercise a lot.
Sufferers will generally experience most of the tenderness and stiffness in the morning after your tendons have been stagnant overnight.
If these symptoms persist for several days or if the pain gets worse, it is essential that you seek medical assistance as it could also mean that you have a torn tendon, which requires additional medical care.
What Causes Achilles Tendinitis?
As with other types of tendinitis, it will occur as a result of an intense strain or repetitive movement of the tendon in question.
The Achilles tendon isn’t only used when exercising at it is also essential for when you’re walking or if you push up onto your toes.
As the human body gets older, as does all of the small components that help it to work, including your tendons.
This is why middle-aged individuals are more likely to suffer from Achilles tendinitis than younger athletic people.
It is imperative that you pay close attention to any signs and signals from your body while being active that could influence straining your tendons.
There are several things to take into consideration when you discuss how likely a person is to experience Achilles tendinitis.
Some important risk factors include:
There are also medical conditions that could exacerbate the prevalence of symptoms or the likelihood of damaging your tendons such as high blood pressure or psoriasis.
Most cases of Achilles tendinitis can be treated entirely at home. You can take advantage of over-the-counter medications such as Aleve or Advil.
It is important to pay close attention to your pain levels because if they become significant you should certainly seek professional assistance.
There are different exercises that you can use to treat the pain and you can also rely on orthotic devices.
Try to find wedges that will help to elevate your heel to take away from any additional strain that your tendon may experience from even walking around.
It can also be beneficial to add heat and ice through an ice pack or a topical agent to the affected area to ensure that the tendons will not swell while they are trying to heal themselves.
Take a moment to think about how often you use your feet on a regular basis, for walk
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