Stop plantar fasciitis before it starts

Plantar fasciitis is heel pain caused by inflammation of the fascia—the connective tissue running from your heel bone to the ball of your foot. It hurts most when you take those first steps out of bed in the morning, and it can linger for months once it sets in. The good news: most cases are preventable. Here are four things you can do to keep your feet healthy and stop plantar fasciitis before it starts.

Improve range of motion in your foot and ankle

Limited ankle dorsiflexion (flexing your foot up toward your shin) is one of the biggest drivers of plantar fasciitis. When your ankle doesn't move well and you stack repetitive activity on top of it—running, dancing, long walks—the fascia that anchors your heel to your forefoot breaks down. You get adhesions, scar tissue, pain, and inflammation.

Good mobility and a stable foot prevent that cycle. In the office we run patients through rehab exercises—often barefoot, so you can grip the floor and switch on the small stabilizing muscles in the foot. A few weeks of consistent work builds a stronger, more resilient foot.

Wear proper footwear (and get out of them sometimes)

Most modern shoes have too much support. The big spongy heel feels great, but it absorbs the force that your muscles, ligaments, and tendons are supposed to be handling. Over time, that creates lazy, weak structures in the foot and ankle.

Then you go to the beach, do a five-mile barefoot run, and suddenly your foot is asked to go from zero to 100. That's a recipe for inflammation and injury.

The fix is balance:

• If you live in cushioned shoes, spend real time barefoot at home to keep the foot working.
• If you prefer minimalist or barefoot footwear, don't suddenly pile on 10,000-15,000 steps a day. Your feet need time to adapt to that kind of load.

Consider orthotics if your arch is high or flat

How you load a joint dictates how it moves, and how much it moves dictates the stress on the surrounding tissue. If you have very high arches or very flat feet, you're loading the foot unevenly every step you take.

A chiropractor or podiatrist can assess your arch and fit you for orthotics that distribute the load more evenly. For the right person, custom orthotics take a surprising amount of stress off the fascia and the rest of the kinetic chain above it.

Already feeling that first-step morning heel pain? Don't wait for it to become chronic. Get a $49 new patient exam and X-rays at Advanced Health and we'll pinpoint what's driving your foot pain—mobility, mechanics, or load. Book online at /schedule or call (312) 987-4878.

Watch your weight and total load

Extra body weight increases the load on every joint from your lower back down to your feet. When a joint is overloaded, the soft tissue that moves and stabilizes it has to work harder, and harder-working tissue breaks down faster.

Does every person with a higher BMI get foot pain? Absolutely not—it's case specific. But when you combine extra load with poor ankle range of motion, the risk of plantar fasciitis goes up sharply. Address both together and you stack the odds in your favor.

The bigger picture

Plantar fasciitis is rarely just a foot problem. It's usually a mobility problem, a footwear problem, a loading problem, or some combination of the three. Sorting those out early—before the fascia is inflamed and screaming at you every morning—is far easier than treating it once it's chronic.

If you're already dealing with heel pain, or you want to get ahead of it, we can help. Learn more about how we approach foot and lower-body issues on our physical therapy page, or contact us to ask a question.