Treatment Tuesday featuring Plantar Fasciitis: How to help yourself heal at home!

 

This video talks about the painful condition Plantar fasciitis.  We discuss the anatomy of this condition as well as Dr Kez’s favourite stretch, exercise and how you can help to heal this conditions at home, using the cupping set and therapeutic ultrasound.

 

Apart from the pain of this condition, it is important to acknowledge that this condition can have flow on effects due to not being able to participate in exercise, which may lead to stiffness, lack of flexibility and weight gain, none of which are helping us on our therapeutic journey.

 

 

The plantar fascia attaches to the under side of the heel and then it fans out to attach to the toes, providing protection to the under surface of the foot and keeping all of those little bones in place. Because of its attachment to the heel, we must also consider the attachment of the calf muscles to the other side of the heel, when considering causes of this condition.  The problem with this plantar fascia arises when the toes and heel are separated in some way causing the fascia to stretch beyond its normal physiological capacity.  This leads to it pulling on the heel and creating inflammation and pain.  This can occur because the toes are being pulled upwards, away from the plantar fascia, or because the heel is being pulled upwards and backwards, again away from the plantar fascia.  Regardless of whether it is the toes or heel, either of these two changes create a pull on the plantar fascia that can initiate this condition.  

 

At 3 minutes check out “the BEST stretch for Plantar Fasciitis.”  This stretch incorporates stretching the calf muscles, both the gastrocnemius (knee straight) and the soleus (knee bent) muscles, as well as it stretching the plantar fascia and increasing blood flow by having the heel hanging off the step.  This step stretch, far surpasses any other stretch that involves have your feet flat on the floor that you might have been doing previously.  1 minute of stretching with your knee straight and then 1 minute with your knee bent.  Remember to do this stretch on both sides even if you haven’t noticed any pain under the other sole, as we don’t want to create any sort of imbalance in the future.

 

 

At 6 minutes and 15 seconds check out “the BEST exercise for helping heal Plantar Fasciitis.”  Using the Spikey ball to roll on the plantar fascia helps to release adhesions and flush out the trapped lactic acid.  The spikes cause a much needed increase in blood flow in the fascia as well.  

 

At 6 minutes and 50 seconds we discuss the symptoms of heel spur and the pin point pain that occurs on the heel.  This requires a slightly different treatment plan, including treating this heel spur specifically, also be mindful of avoiding the Spikey ball onto the heel spur.  Plantar fasciitis left untreated is likely to lead to a heel spur.  

 

At 10 minutes we start to work on the tight muscles of the calves to prevent the heel being pulled upwards and aggravating the plantar fascia.  This is important to the overall success of eliminating plantar fasciitis.  We are using Restore massage oil to massage the calves as the 5 essential oils included in this oil massively assists with circulation and lymphatic return, which is highly important in conditions like Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis that increase inflammation in the ankle and foot area.

 

11 minutes 30 seconds let's show you how to use the premium vacuum cupping set to help break down the adhesions of these tight calf muscles to further relieve the pull on the heel and therefore helping to release the tension on the plantar fascia.  Make sure there is sufficient amounts of restore massage oil on the area you are going to cup and the plantar fascia itself before selecting the appropriate sized cups, we used three 04 cups on the calves and one 03 size cup on the plantar fascia itself.   Leave the cups for about 10 minutes to help release the adhesions between the muscles and increase the blood flow to wash out the toxic lactic acid (waste product of muscle movement).

 

At 16 minutes 30 seconds we talk further about heel spurs specifically and the need to rest the spur to allow it to not continue to get aggravated.  Using a heel cup is one of the best ways prevent the impact of walking from further aggravating a heel spur.  The extremely soft nature of the heel cup, which can be slipped into your shoes, means that the spur is being protected with each step that you make, because the reality is none of us are able to sit with our feet up for months, while the body heals the spur.  

 

At 17 minutes and 30 seconds we move into a discussion on how to use the therapeutic ultrasound to help you heal at home.  The therapeutic ultrasound can be used on the Achilles tendon, Sever’s disease (on the Achilles attachment to the heel) the undersurface of the bone for a heal spur, or directly on the plantar fascia.  For bone spurs or Sever’s disease use the Bone Aid Relief Cream as well as the Kirofix® Injury Relief Cream or Trauma Relief Cream over the area before using the gel and then starting the ultrasound treatment.  If you are just using the ultrasound on the plantar fascia, and there is no direct pain on the heel at all, just the Kirofix® Injury Relief Lotion or Trauma Relief Cream (these two products have the same active ingredients for helping the body to heal soft tissue injuries and inflammation), followed by the gel and then the ultrasound.  Whenever treating a condition for the purpose of reducing inflammation and healing, like plantar fasciitis we always use the therapeutic ultrasound on the pulsed setting which research has found to be the most effective way to stimulate the body to heal.  Although the term pulsed is a little deceptive, as no pulsed can be heard or felt, it simply refers to the high frequency sound waves pulsing on and off during the treatment duration.  This gives the body a chance to respond to the high frequency sounds waves in between each surge.  

 

At 23 minutes and 50 minutes we start answering questions from our community.

 

Plantar fasciitis is a difficult condition to heal and can take some time, but taking control of your healing by using heel cups in your shoes to prevent further aggravation, doing the exercises and stretching in this video and using the cupping set and therapeutic ultrasound at home can significantly speed up the recovery of this ongoing, painful condition.  Check out the pictures below for further information on the products mentioned in this video: