Plantar fasciitis (Yoga in Heston & Hounslow)

11 Aug Plantar fasciitis (Yoga in Heston & Hounslow)

The Mayo clinic on their website describe Plantar fasciitis (PLAN-tur fas-e-I-tis) as “one of the most common causes of heel pain. It involves inflammation of a thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes (plantar fascia).

Plantar fasciitis commonly causes stabbing pain that usually occurs with your first steps in the morning. As you get up and move more, the pain normally decreases, but it might return after long periods of standing or after rising from sitting.”

The following is an edited extract from Daniel E. Lieberman’s brilliant book “The Story of the Human Body”. If you have time I highly recommend reading it. If you have issues with your feet hopefully this will help you understand why.

“Plantar fasciitis has multiple causes, but one way it develops is when the muscles of the foot’s arch become weak and the fascia has to compensate for these weak muscles that are unable to maintain the arch. The fascia is not well designed for this much stress and becomes painfully inflamed.

When your feet hurt, your whole body hurts, so most people with foot pain are desperate for treatment. Unfortunately, we too often help these unhappy souls by relieving their symptoms rather than remedying the causes of their problems.

Strong, flexible feet are healthy feet, but instead of strengthening their patients’  feet, many podiatrists prescribe orthotics and advise patients to wear comfortable shoes with arch supports and stiff soles. These treatments do effectively relieve the symptoms of flat feet and plantar fasciitis, but if their use is not discontinued they can create a pernicious feedback loop because they don’t prevent the problem from occurring and instead eventually allow the muscles of the foot to become even weaker. Consequently, people who wear orthotics become increasingly reliant on them.

In this regard, perhaps we should treat the foot more like other parts of the body. If you sprain or damage your neck or shoulder, you might use a brace to relieve the pain temporarily, but doctors rarely prescribe permanent braces. Instead you discontinue using the brace as soon as possible and often have physical therapy to regain your strength.

Since the forces that cause repetitive injuries result from the way your body moves, another underused form of prevention and treatment is to look at how people actually move when they walk and run and how well their muscles can control these movements. Although some doctors will examine the gait of a patient who suffers from a repetitive stress injury, too many just treat the symptoms of the problem by prescribing medications, orthotics, or cushioned shoes.

Several studies have found that prescriptions of motion-control shoes, which limit how much the foot rolls in (pronation) or out (supination), have no effect on reducing injury rates among runners. Another study found that runners are actually more likely to be injured in more expensive, cushioned shoes.

Sadly, between 20 percent and 70 percent of runners incur repetitive stress injuries every year, and there is no evidence that the rates have declined as shoe technology has become more sophisticated over the last thirty years.”

As we saw in the previous article it is important to train and to practice walking barefoot to build up strength in our feet. The flashy and expensive shoes we wear are doing us more harm than good.