ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PLANTARFASCIITIS

a quick summary /  All you need to know about plantarfasciitis  / what causes plantarfasciitis  / treatment options  /  orthotics 

 

Plantarfasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain.  Interestingly affecting 1 in 10 people throughout their lifetime.

We have summarised plantarfasciitis here: what it is, the causes and treatments.

Why is Plantarfasciitis on the rise?

1 in 10 people will develop plantarfasciitis in their lifetime (4).  However, this lockdown period has seen lots of newbie runners whilst also allowed an opportunity for experienced runners to up their distance.  But the downside of this increase in running is that the incidence of plantarfasiitis seems to be on the increase.  We are seeing new patients on a daily basis that have developed plantarfasciitis through lockdown.

Quick summary of Plantarfasciitis

• pain on the inside of the heel
• most noticeable with initial steps after a period of inactivity
• pain usually lessens with increasing level of activity during the day, but will tend to worsen toward the end of the day (2).
• Pain worse following prolonged weight bearing, and often precipitated by increase in weight bearing activities.
• Usually present on one side only but can be present bilaterally in up to 30% of cases (3).
• Tightness of Achilles tendon is found in almost 80% of cases (4) and it can taken between 6 – 18 months to resolve.

Plantarfasciitis has been described within scientific literature as;

• painful heel syndrome
• chronic plantar heel pain
• heel spur syndrome
• runner’s heel
• calcaneal periostitis

(3)

What is Plantarfasciitis?

The plantar fascia is a fibrous band that extends from the heel bone to the toes and acts as a shock absorber, supporting the arch in your foot.  Plantarfasciitis is an injury to this plantar fascia band.  In the earlier stages of injury the plantar fascia is inflamed and the accurate injury term is plantar fasciitis. After approximately 4-6 weeks of injury the plantar fascia is undergoing degeneration and the correct term is then plantar fasciosis.  However, plantarfasciitis appears to be the preferred general term for both injury types.

What does plantarfasciitis feel like?

• pain under the heel of the foot and sometimes the pain can present under the arch of the foot and around the back of the heel.
• the most severe heel pain tends to be on those first few steps taken after getting out of bed in the morning.
• in the more mild cases the pain will ease after the first few steps and not often present through-out the remainder of the day.
• in the more severe cases people will describe the onset of heel pain when standing and walking following periods of non weight bearing, such as getting up out the chair or walking after driving.
• You may struggle with increasing pain in-line with increased walking: i.e. the pain gets worse the more you walk.  In the most severe cases, heel pain presents at rest and can also keep you up at night.

Why do I have plantarfasciitis?

You have somehow applied excess stress on your plantar fascia band underneath your foot.  Reasons for this include, although are not exclusive to, some of the following;

• over pronated feet
• tight calf muscles (related to over pronation)
• tight muscles underneath the foot (related to over pronation)
• sudden increase in weight bearing exercise or a change to your training intensity with an over pronated foot is a common cause.
• wearing unsupportive footwear
• weight gain

Book a Biomechanical Assessment to check your foot posture!

Alignment changes of the foot and ankle are often the cause of these conditions, or at least contributing factors.  Therefore, heel pain may be associated with foot pronation  (flat feet) or a high arched supinated foot.

Is a Bone Spur the same as Plantarfasciitis?

A bone spur is a build up of calcium deposits underneath the heel bone.  The heel spur can protrude through the heels’ fat pad and be very painful on weight bearing.

Fibrocartilage is the strong, tough tissue containing cartilage which is found at the insertions of tendons and ligaments into a bone. Heel spurs have been found surrounding fibrocartilage of the heel which may not be aligned with the same direction of traction (1).

If not plantarfasciitis, what else could the heel pain be?

• A plantar fascia rupture
• Atrophy of the heels fat pad
• A stress fracture of the calcaneus (heel bone)
• Tumor
• Calcaneal bursistis
• Boxter’s Nerve Entrapment
• Medial Nalcaneal Nerve Entrapment
• Seonegative Arthropathies
• Spinal Stenosis and L5-S1 nerve irritations

(5).

Heel pain first thing in the morning? Struggling to stand or walk for long periods? Pain after exercise?

You do not need to suffer like this! We’re created this FREE simple step by step guide brochure to help you get rid of plantarfasciitis and other heel pain.

See our FREE BROCHURE guide to the right of this page.

Sited Literature

1. Hossain M, Makawana N. “Not Plantar Fasciitis”: The differential diagnosis and management of heel pain syndrome. Orthopaedics and Trauma. 2011. vol. 25(3), pp. 198–206.
2. McPoil TG, Martin RL, Cornwall MW, Wukich DK, Irrgang JJ, Godges JJ. Heel pain-plantar fasciitis: clinical practice guildelines linked to the international classification of function, disability, and health from the orthopaedic section of the American Physical Therapy Association. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2008;38:A1–18
3. Roxas M. Plantar fasciitis: Diagnosis and therapeutic considerations. Altern Med Rev. 2005. vol. 10, pp. 83–93.
4. Singh D, Angel J, Bentley G, Trevino SG. Fortnightly review. Plantar fasciitis. BMJ. 1997;315:172–5
5. M.A. Tahririan, M.M. Mohammad,  N. Tahmasebi, and B. Siavashi. 2012. Plantarfasciitis. J Res Med Sci. pp. 799–804.