Know the Difference Between Sore Feet and Plantar Fasciitis

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Are you constantly battling sore feet? One prevalent culprit behind such discomfort is plantar fasciitis, a condition arising from strain on the ligament supporting your foot’s arch. If you’re middle-aged or spend extended periods on your feet, this could be the source of your agony. But fear not, understanding its nuances and effective treatment methods can provide much-needed relief.

Key Takeaway:

• Plantar fasciitis causes stabbing pain near the heel, notably upon waking and taking the first steps.
• Differentiation involves considering pain patterns, particularly its absence at night.
• Causes include prolonged standing, ill-fitting shoes, foot structure issues, and unexpected factors like pelvic misalignment.
• Immediate relief focuses on inflammation reduction, often with medication or corticosteroid shots.
• Long-term relief necessitates correcting pelvic alignment using spinal orthotics and functional physical therapy.

What are the key differences between plantar fasciitis and other foot conditions, and how can it be effectively treated?

Plantar fasciitis is distinguished by stabbing pain near the heel, especially during the first steps after waking. Differentiating factors include pain patterns, absence during nighttime, and causes such as prolonged standing or pelvic misalignment. Effective treatment involves inflammation reduction, correction of pelvic alignment using spinal orthotics, and functional physical therapy.

If you are regularly suffering with sore feet, there may be many causes. However one of the most common foot complaints is called plantar fasciitis. This condition results from a strain of the plantar fascia – The ligament which supports the arch of your foot. If you are middle-aged or you are somebody who is always on your feet, there is a chance that plantar fasciitis is the cause of your foot pain. If this turns out to be the case, you might be surprised to know what the possible causes are and how the most successful treatments target the core of your body, rather than your feet.

Before getting into the causes and remedies though, it might help you to know some of the key differences between plantar fasciitis and some other problems and conditions that can cause foot pain.

Plantar Fasciitis versus Other Foot Conditions

Perhaps the first thing to understand about plantar fasciitis is that it typically manifests itself as a stabbing pain in the bottom of your foot, close to your heel. Distinguishing plantar fasciitis from other conditions though, is not as simple as identifying which part of your foot is causing discomfort. Another question that a physician is likely to ask you when attempting a diagnosis is about the time of day and night that you feel the most pain in your foot.

The reason for this is that plantar fasciitis is generally not painful when you are off your feet during the night time. If your foot hurts through the night, there is a greater likelihood that some other condition is at the root of the problem – Perhaps arthritis or tarsal tunnel syndrome. With plantar fasciitis, pain is most likely to begin when you take your first few steps after getting out of bed. At this point, your foot may feel stiff as well as painful. After walking around a little, you may find that the pain and stiffness eases, only to return as the day draws on.

Other foot complaints which can cause similar symptoms to plantar fasciitis include the following:

• A heel bone stress fracture
• Circulatory problems
• A compressed or trapped nerve
• Bursitis or tendinitis

Causes of Plantar Fasciitis:

There are a number of factors which can bring about the onset of plantar fasciitis. These include:

• Walking, running or standing for long periods of time, particularly on hard surfaces
• Ill-fitting shoes
• Flat feet or high arches
• Sudden foot trauma, resulting from an accident or sports injury, for example

Perhaps the most unexpected cause of plantar fasciitis rests with problems elsewhere in the body; namely the hips and the pelvis. If your hips or pelvis become misaligned, which can happen for any number of reasons, one foot receives more load than the other when you walk, due to a change in your gait. Over time, this extra loading begins to cause small tears in the plantar fascia.

These small tears result in inflammation which is, in its turn, the source of your foot pain. Without treatment, the pain often becomes chronic and can start to make some of your normal activities too uncomfortable to continue.

Treating Plantar Fasciitis:

The standard medical approach to immediate relief for plantar fasciitis is to prescribe medication to reduce the inflammation in your foot. If your pain is chronic and severe, your physician may recommend that you receive corticosteroid shots into the tender part of your foot. Alongside medication, you may be advised to limit or stop any activity which causes pain in your heel. The idea of this is to try and give the tears in your plantar fascia time to heal.

However, unlike some other causes of sore or painful feet, these treatments will not actually cure your plantar fasciitis; they will purely act as a Band-Aid. If your condition is caused by a pelvic imbalance, the only way to fix your foot is to fix your pelvic alignment. One way in which this can be done is with the use of spinal orthotics. These are inserts worn inside your shoes which normalize your gait when you walk and help to correct any imbalance in your hips and pelvis.

Spinal orthotics can bring fast relief to the symptoms of plantar fasciitis as well as treating the root cause of the condition. They immediately improve your foot function, by correcting your gait and taking the abnormal load off the affected foot. This in itself will help to ease discomfort and promote healing of torn tissue.

Choose the Right Form of Physical Therapy:

Physical therapy too, can certainly help to reverse the problems which caused your plantar fasciitis, but it’s important to find a practitioner who provides “functional physical therapy”. This form of physical therapy is specifically focused on correcting any musculoskeletal imbalances which may have caused you to put an excessive load on one foot. Similarly, if you have been suffering with foot pain for some time, you will probably have been putting extra strain on your hips, pelvis and lower back as a result of compensating for discomfort when standing and walking.

By addressing the alignment of your body, the combination of functional physical therapy and spinal orthotics therefore, serves not only to correct the cause of plantar fasciitis, but can prevent new problems which might otherwise develop too. It’s also a side-effect free and less painful alternative to addressing plantar fasciitis than the application of steroids via a needle.

Also Read : Try Laser Treatment for Long Term Relief from Plantar Fasciitis Pain