Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis has got to be by far the most common musculoskeletal problems of the foot. It also gets commonly mislabelled as a heel spur which are not a problem. The problem is the plantar fascia inserting into the heel bone. The key symptom of plantar fasciitis is plantar heel pain after arising from rest, especially getting out of bed in the morning. This pain after rest for the first few steps is almost diagnostic of the problem. Plantar fasciitis is due to too much load in the long ligaments that supports the arch of the foot (the plantar fascia). This load can come from higher levels of activity, being overweight and having tight alf muscles. As this is a load issue, then the only proper way to manage plantar fasciitis over the long term is to reduce the load in the plantar fascia. This can only be done with low dye strapping and certain foot orthotic design parameters. All other treatment modalities (eg shockwave, ultrasound, accupuncture, etc) are really aimed at helping the tissue heal that are damaged as part of the plantar fasciitis. They are not going to be very helpful if the load going through the plantar fascia is not addressed.
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