If you’re here, you’re probably experiencing the uncomfortable effects of chronic plantar fasciitis — in other words, that intense heel pain on the bottom of your foot that just won’t go away. Made worse by the fact that humans are bipeds who use their feet to get everywhere, chronic plantar fasciitis can make a perfectly healthy person feel seriously restricted in just about everything they do.
Luckily, there are ways to treat — and yes, cure — chronic plantar fasciitis, all without the need for surgery. Here, we run you through the basics of plantar fasciitis, what makes it chronic, and the best ways to treat it to get you back on your feet… literally.
What Is Plantar Fasciitis?
Your feet are full of tendons, ligaments, tissue, and bones, evolved with the sole purpose to help you balance upright. One piece of the anatomic puzzle we have to thank for our ability to stand, walk, and run on two feet is the fascia, a band of fibrous tissue on the bottom of your foot that connects your heel bones to your toes and supports the arch of your foot. Plantar fasciitis happens when the fascia becomes inflamed, leading to dull or intense heel pain, which is often worse in the mornings or after spending time on your feet.
What Causes Plantar Fasciitis?
Because plantar fasciitis is so common, its causes are, too. Some of the most well-known causes include:
- High heels or shoes with no arch support
- Having an unusual style of walking
- Overuse (for example, too much pounding exercise, like running)
- Being overweight
- Working on your feet or standing for long hours
- Read more on causes and symptoms here
When Does Plantar Fasciitis Become Chronic?
Pain is usually characterized as chronic when it lasts or reoccurs beyond 3 to 6 months. So if your foot has been throbbing for what feels like forever, or you’ve had days when you think it’s gone only for it to flare up after a long walk or weird misstep, your plantar fasciitis has become chronic.
The good news is that plantar fasciitis is one of the top reasons people visit foot and ankle specialists, which means there are tons of tried-and-true methods to fixing the fascia. Below, we list some of the best ways to treat plantar fasciitis, both short-term and chronic.
What Are the Best Treatment Options for Plantar Fasciitis?
Treatment options for chronic plantar fasciitis are different from those which treat regular, short-term plantar fasciitis. Here is a list of options for both.
How to Treat Acute Plantar Fasciitis (Short-Term):
- Rest: Rest seems like both the most obvious option, but it needs to be mentioned here because of one simple fact: our bodies, when given some time off, are healing machines. Rest can mean sleeping — and there are certainly benefits to sleep. It’s when the body is in maximum healing mode, regenerating cells and targeting areas of the body that are worn down — but it can also mean staying off your feet as much as possible, and/or keeping your foot elevated to reduce inflammation.
- Night Splints: These combine the powers of rest with the science of stretching. Some doctors might recommend that you wear a splint on your foot at night that will help you stretch the fascia, depending on what kind of pain you’re dealing with. A tight fascia and Achilles tendon (the fascia’s heel-area neighbor) mean there’s more risk for tearing the tissue around your heel. Stretching, therefore, is a preventative.
- New Shoes: You might have to ditch the high heels and flat sneakers. Old shoes with no arch support make the fascia take the brunt of the force when you’re running, jogging, or even walking. Consider talking to your doctor about certain orthotics options, and find shoes or shoe inserts with ample arch support.
- Eat Healthy: As mentioned, obesity is one cause of plantar fasciitis because of how the feet distribute and carry your body weight. Maintaining a healthy weight for your body (which of course varies from person to person) can help take the pressure off not just your fascia, but also your joints, your heart, your blood vessels and organs, and more.
How to Treat Chronic Plantar Fasciitis (Long-Term):
If the pain isn’t going away even after you’ve tried some (or more) of the above fixes, it’s time to consider these additional treatment options.
- Physical Therapy: Physical therapy is a good option to help identify the individual causes of and treat chronic plantar fasciitis. A physical therapist can help you do stretches that lengthen the fascia and surrounding tendons (because everything in the body is connected), as well as strengthen foot, ankle, and leg muscles to support the whole walking system.
Physical therapy is an effective process, but can be painful, slow and time-consuming. If you work a job at odd hours or can’t take time off, or simply have a busy life, it can be a difficult option for many to realistically pursue.
- Shockwave Treatment (also known as EPAT/ESWT): EPAT, or Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Technology, is a non-invasive, non-surgical procedure during which acoustic waves are aimed at the area of pain to stimulate blood flow and healing. It’s an evidence-based treatment option and backed by numerous third-party studies. EPAT is also shown to be more effective when used in tandem with evidence-guided technologies that increase its efficacy, such as ultrasound technology and biologics.
Multiple studies show that this treatment option is especially effective over time, and as this study puts it, the sound waves “turn a chronic lesion into an acute lesion” by stimulating the blood flow in the area to encourage your injury out of chronic status and into the next phase of the healing process.
Shockwave is a good choice for chronic plantar fasciitis patients who have busy lives, less time, and want to get back to doing what they love without the downtime that comes with surgery. It requires virtually no recovery time and no anesthesia, and can take as few as three appointments to get you feeling “back to normal” again.
CuraGenex provides regenerative solutions like shockwave to help those experiencing both acute and chronic pain. If you would like to talk to a shockwave expert, or set up an appointment at one of our locations, just contact us at any time.
