What is Plantar Fasciitis?
The sole of the foot is often called plantar area. Plantar Fasciitis is a disease that is very common in causing pain in the heel. The plantar fascia is a flat band of tissue whose job is to connect the heel bone with the toes. The arch of the foot is supported by it.
In case the plantar fascia gets strained, the tissue gets weak, swollen and also cause irritation. As a result, it causes a problem in walking. The bottom of the foot hurts when you first stand in morning or when to try to walk. This condition is painful. It is not that much serious but certainly is discomfort for the person-affecting it.
How long does it take to recover from plantar fasciitis?
To heal completely, plantar fascia needs about 3 to 12 months. If you will go for treatment process, your foot will heal faster. Doctors recommend for you to have several numbers of the treatment process at a time. This includes home treatments as well as medical treatment. This will increase your chance of fast recovery.
Many people stop treatment once the pain finishes. You must consider that plantar fasciitis is a slow process. It ends slowly and takes a long time to finish. This is the reason, the experts recommend you to continue the treatment for around 3 months after you become pain-free from the disease. This will eliminate your chance of getting the same disease again.
For the question how long does it take to recover, the answer is 3 to 9 months. It is a general phenomenon that is observed in the majority of people. Low-level treatments are effective and time-consuming in the treatment process. However, in rare cases i.e. less than 1%, a person may need surgical treatment.
How can I treat plantar fasciitis at home?
Treatment at home is a much easy task to do. It can be related to the natural way to cure the disease. Given below are some easy tasks that will let you treat the plantar fasciitis at home. They are very simple.
Rest – When you see the symptoms of plantar fasciitis, rest is the first thing you should try. You need to give them proper rest for 2 to 6 weeks. During this duration, you must reduce your routine of standing, walking and running.
Change your activities – Resting your foot doesn’t mean to lay in bed all the time. You just need to do exercises that do not tend to stretch your arch. Laying all the time is bad for health and swimming or cycling could be the best alternatives to do during the rest period.
Choose footwear that supports your foot – You should select for shoes and devices that will support your foot. These will really help you to protect the plantar fascia. Good shoes tend to heal the disease. A combination of supportive shoes along with Arch supports is recommended by doctors. When you need to walk or stand, you must use the shoes with good arch and heel support. Slippers or sandals are not good.
Ice your foot – Icing the foot is also an important thing you can do at home. You need to massage the painful area with ice. The duration could be around 2 to 3 minutes. The exercise should be repeated several times a day.
Stretch – You need to stretch your calf muscles and Achilles tendon. One important thing to note is to stretch them both before and after the exercise. A little warm up and a stretch at the beginning of the exercise program is very beneficial.
Can plantar fasciitis be cured?
Plantar fasciitis is a type of disease that is not very serious. Although it causes severe pain but doesn’t have any complicated result associated with it. If handle through proper care, it can be cured completely. Many people do it within a year. If we see the matter in a broader way, almost 95% patients relieve their pain through nonsurgical treatments. These are the use of simple medicines and proper exercises. Around 5% of them are serious cases and less than 1% people need complete surgery.
To complete the curing procedure, you need to keep the goals of it in mind:
- Relieve inflame and pain that is in the heel.
- Allow small tears to heal.
- Improve strength and flexibility of the foot. Correct excessive pronation so to minimize the stress on the plantar fascia ligament.
- In last, slowly start your normal activities, so you will return to routine life.
How do you prevent plantar fasciitis?
Injury to plantar fasciitis is a very painful thing. If you occur it, all your routine will get disturbed. There are various things that you must take care of. These will ensure that your feet get protected from injury.
Wear supportive shoes – It is recommended to use shoes that are meant for running. Pro walking shoes can also be an alternative. When you have a long distance to cover, you must use them. These will provide support to your feet and will help to eliminate the risk of injury. Running requires special care. Avoid walking barefoot.
Wear shoes with slightly higher heels – To shorten the arch, you must use moderate heels. It will let reduce the stress on the plantar fascia. This will lead to a reduction in pain and will ensure a safe walk throughout the day.
Lose weight – Talk to a physician and work on managing your weight. Healthy eating and regular exercises are necessary to reduce weight. Reduction in weight will have a direct effect on stress on the foot. This will further eliminate your chances of having the disease. A waist trimmer can also be an alternative way.
Stretch – As defined earlier, stretching is very important. Warm up has pretty much importance before exercise. Stretching the calf muscles is helpful in protection against Achilles tendon. It will ensure proper landing of feet during walking and running.
Plantar Fasciitis Exercise
Exercise for plantar fascia can be classified into three types.
- Wake up Exercises
- Warm up Exercises
- Regular Exercises
Wake Up Exercises – Pain is severe for patients when they wake up. In most cases, a person can’t even take a step. During whole night, the tissue has been tightened. At that time there are some exercises that will help you to be normal.
You must do stretching before standing. This can be done by flexing the foot up and down 10 times. Toe stretching is also effective for stretching of the plantar fascia.
Warm Up Exercises – These are the type of exercises that need to be done before regular exercise. These are simple stretching positions that tend to warm the body up for the workout. It makes the plantar fascia more flexible. This way the chance of injury is reduced.
Regular Exercises – Treatment alone cannot put a major effect unless it is not supported by regular exercise. You need to avoid exercises that make frequent use of the foot.
Some alternate exercises that are good for stretching are as follows.
Stretching the plantar fascia: In this exercise, you need to pull the foot and toes up with the hands. Then stretch it for about 30 seconds. You need to repeat it 5 times at a time and 3 times a day.
Plantar fasciitis night splint: The night splint is a splint that is worn throughout the night. It prevents the tissues from tightening up. Wearing it is very effective as it will eliminate the need of a wake-up stretches.
Plantar fascia stretch by rolling: Rolling the foot over a round object is very helpful. This way the plantar fascia is stretched. A ball, weight bar, or a rolling pin can be used for this purpose. You need to roll your foot repeatedly while increasing pressure on the object. You should continue the exercise for 10 minutes per day.
Plantar Fasciitis Symptoms
There are several symptoms that are associated with Plantar Fasciitis.
- If you feel pain early in the morning during your first step, it could be the possible symptom. This is because most people had this when they get out of bed at morning or sit for a long time.
- When you take first steps, it will have a lot of pain but the stiffness and pain will decrease after you walk sometimes. However, it will hurt a lot in the later part of the day.
- Another sign of this pain is that it will hurt the most after climbing stairs or stand at a place for a long time.
- However, you should not mix it with Arthritis. Foot pain at night is often caused by Arthritis or some other nerve problem.
Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
Treatment is very necessary. If the problem is diagnosed in early stages, it can be sorted out through some routine checkups. However, the level of treatment increases depending on how late you start it.
There are various treatment procedures. The type of treatment depends on the level of pain you had. Normally expert doctors recommend that a person should use at least two type of treatment processes at a time.
Three different treatment procedures are as follows.
- Medications
- Therapies
- Surgical
Medications – This method involves the use of pain relievers. These include ibuprofen and naproxen sodium. This will ease the pain of your plantar fasciitis. Medicines can provide both short-term and long-term solution to the problem. Some of them are just painkillers while others are directed to make complete healing.
Therapies – This method includes stretching exercises. Specialized devices that provide relief are also included in this method. This is the best treatment procedure for a reason. It does not require the use of any type of medicines and hence is the only way with minimal drawbacks.
Physical therapy: In this method, special exercises are instructed to a person. You may need the consultation of a physician. Stretching the plantar fascia and strengthening of lower leg muscles are included in it. Plantar fasciitis requires a person to give completely to his foot. That may cause other health issues for him. To eliminate its chances, alternate exercises are the best things to do. Not only will they remove stress on affected tissue, but workout will also make sure your metabolism is working in a proper way.
Night splints: A splint stretches your calf and the arch of the foot. Using it at night while reducing the risk of tissue tightening early in the morning. Many doctors rate it an important part of treatment and rate it a necessary thing to do side by side with exercise.
Surgical – When natural ways, medicines, exercises do not work for several months, it is probably a time when a doctor will move forward to surgical treatment. Keep in mind, only about 5% patients require the surgical methods of treatment. It is done in several ways.
Some of those ways are given below:
Injections: This method involves the injecting of a type of steroid medication. It is injected into the tender area. It tends to provide temporary relief from the pain. Proper care must be taken to eliminate the risk of tissue rapture during these.
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy: This method involves the direction of sound waves on to the affected area. These waves stimulate the healing process. However, it has severe drawbacks that make doctors think many times before going to apply this technique.
Tenex procedure: This method is much safe in all surgical methods. It involves the removal of scar tissue of plantar fasciitis. This is done without surgery and is safe overall.
Surgery: Surgery is probably the last option. Less than 1% patients need it and are the most serious form of the disease. It is done if you have severe pain and every other method has failed to remove the pain. In surgery, the plantar fascia is detached from the heel bone.
However, it has a severe side effect as in cause to the weakening of arch in your foot. This is the reason, doctors normally avoid surgery and rate it at the last of their list.