Disclaimer – your body is your body and as your chiropractor I love the fact that no one gets to tell you what to do with it. If you would rather use pills every day for the rest of your life than do boring exercises and spend money on custom orthotics and chiropractors – I get it. I am a chiropractor – but lord knows I am a human being too – and I have chosen the easy way out of a few situations in my time. This blog is not designed to tell anyone what they ‘should’ do, only what I have learned tends to bring better outcomes for people with plantar fasciitis heel pain & plantar fasciitis arch pain.
For me as a chiropractor, if I am caring for your stubborn pain – I want you to feel good again – and if at all possible I don’t want that outcome to be temporary. If there is any way I can show you how to make your outcomes last so that you stay feeling good that’s what I am about.
If you have a cavity in your tooth there is no point in trying to floss your way out of that scenario, as you know. There are times in life where all our attempts to preserve our ‘wellness’ fall flat on their face, and when they do it’s time to pull out the scalpel, the drill or the pill.
When it comes to plantar fasciitis treatment at your chiropractors office you are pretty much in the same boat as toothache – the good ship tooth cavity. Except, instead of drilling – going through the steps necessary to break up scar tissue and increase blood flow in the sole of the foot is the order of the day. The best way to do this is by finding someone like me who is willing to throw the kitchen sink at that process.
When it comes to plantar fasciitis treatment you want to look at some combination of deep tissue release, scar tissue scraping (guasha), acupuncture, icing, taping & stretching. Not all chiropractors are into this kind of work – but those who do it are generally very good at it. The best policy with plantar fasciitis treatment is to get help – but you can easily try some of these out yourself with a bit of research.
The problem with getting plantar fasciitis treatment from your chiropractor is the same as the problem with fillings.. they just aren’t enough. If you get your filling and head straight to the nearest grocery store and stock up with Coca-Cola and forget to buy toothpaste you know what to expect. By the same token if you saw your chiropractor for a month of plantar fasciitis treatment and you jump straight back on the basketball court with no custom orthotics, flat feet and no strength in your glutes – it amounts to the same thing as the ‘Coca Cola but no toothpaste’ scenario.
The equivalent to the sugar in this plantar fasciitis treatment scenario is concrete because it’s really hard on your soft tissues – in the same way that sugar is really hard on your teeth. The equivalent to the brushing and flossing in the plantar fasciitis scenario are exercises that strengthen the muscles of your legs and feet. This is because to a large degree it is all those muscles that help to maintain good alignment which reduces stress in the arch and the heel.
So plantar fasciitis exercises that strengthen you through the legs and feet are the equivalent of your dental hygiene regime. Plantar fasciitis exercises of this nature work preventatively by strengthening the muscles that maintain foot alignment.
The type of plantar fasciitis exercises involved are those that involve balance and stability, like those on a wobble board or lunges. There is a bit of work involved in getting the technique right for full benefit but once you know what you are doing you are good to go.
The inconvenient truth about plantar fasciitis exercises is similar to the inconvenient truth about looking after your teeth. You may never be done !! There is no officially sanctioned cure for tooth decay as long as you eat a modern western diet. There is no official cure for weaknesses of the legs and feet as long as you live on the terrain of the concrete jungle – no matter how good your chiropractor is.
The good news is though that there is a measure that can be taken which will enable you to be fairly slack and still live without plantar fasciitis heel pain & arch pain.
Going back to the similarities between concrete on the feet and sugar on the teeth. Imagine there was a simple, invisible, non-toxic device that you could wear all the time and not even feel it, but it protected your teeth from 80% of the damage sugars can do to them ! Would you wear a device like that ? I know I would. That’s what custom orthotics for plantar fasciitis are for your feet.
You evolved to walk & run on soft, shock absorbing, contoured surfaces like those found in nature. You didn’t evolve to walk & run on hard flat surfaces like the ones in towns and cities. Custom Insoles for plantar fasciitis mould to your foot and give it shock absorption which mimics natural surfaces.
By mimicking what is more natural to the foot custom orthotics for plantar fasciitis dramatically reduce the amount of stress in your foot over the course of time. If there is less stress in the plantar fascia, there is less strain on the plantar fascia and less scar tissue build up in the plantar fascia. But perhaps more intriguingly you get to feel good and stay feeling good !!!!!!
It stands to reason that plantar fasciitis doesn’t just happen for no reason. If it doesn’t happen for no reason there must be an underlying cause or causes. Taking a pill or going to your chiropractor for ‘pain relief’ methods like acupuncture doesn’t work on those underlying causes.
For those who want to feel good and be active in the long term – a combination of chiropractors treatments (not the most traditional ones obviously), plantar fasciitis exercises & custom insoles for plantar fasciitis forms a far more comprehensive approach to managing their pain than most.
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