How To Treat Plantar Fasciitis Quickly
(Heal It Fast With Chiropractics)

That deep heel pain that is associated with plantar fasciitis occurs due to inflammation of the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a thick band of tissue that extends along the bottom of the foot from the heel bone to the ball of the foot where it attaches to the toe bones. 

Plantar fasciitis is often caused by high-impact activities and is common among runners but it can also occur from long periods of standing. Having a job that requires a lot of walking or standing on hard surfaces can cause plantar fasciitis and it's most common in people who are obese, flat-footed, or older because the plantar fascia loses its elasticity with age. Plantar fasciitis is very common and it can be incredibly disrupting to your life. 

If you're like most people, you want to know how to treat plantar fasciitis quickly and the good news is that it's very possible when you visit a chiropractor. Plantar fasciitis usually resolves within 6 to 18 months if you don't get treatment, but that is a long time to go through life with intense heel pain! We take a multi-pronged approach to treating plantar fasciitis that gets results quickly and provides much-needed relief from that annoying and intense heel pain.

How To Treat Plantar Fasciitis Quickly

If you want to feel better faster, coming in for a visit with one of our chiropractors can help manage the pain and get faster results. One of the ways we treat plantar fasciitis pain or heel spur pain is to dry needle the foot and Achilles tendon. Now I know what you're thinking, having needles stuck into your foot sounds painful. In this article, you'll see exactly what it's like for someone who has never had dry needling in this area before. She's understandably nervous it'll hurt, and while the foot is an uncomfortable place to have dry needled, the relief it provides for plantar fasciitis pain is worth it.

Wondering how dry needling works to provide plantar fasciitis pain? All tissues (including muscles) respond to two different types of stimuli: chemical (ex: drugs or breaking the tissue) and mechanical (ex: massage or exercise). Dry needling uses very thin dry needles that puncture the skin and slide through the tissue. The needles provide a constant mechanical stimulus to the trigger points while they're in place, which is 15 minutes for plantar fasciitis.  The mechanical stimulus provided is similar to what your muscles would get from a massage but because the needle doesn't need to release pressure like a hand does when massaging a muscle, the pressure remains constant and is able to provide relief in a very short period of time.

Typically when we deal with heel pain, we treat the plantar fascia which runs across the heel. We also treat one of the big toe muscles that run down the foot and attaches to the plantar fascia. Treating this muscle is a very effective way to treat plantar fasciitis pain. We also dry needle the Achilles tendon and the fat tissue on either side of the tendon. After dry needling for 15 minutes, we move onto applying ultrasound right over the heel and then we adjust the foot and do some soft tissue work.

We apply ultrasound over the heel using the deep heat modality to help stimulate relief from the needles. We usually either use a heating pad or ultrasound for this. We also encourage patients to take a hot shower or a hot bath when they get home to provide more relief. This ultrasound treatment after dry needling for plantar fasciitis takes just 5-6 minutes.

After the dry needling and ultrasound treatments are complete, we do a foot adjustment using 3 techniques to work on 3 different parts of the foot: the superficial layer of the plantar fascia, the deep layer of the plantar fascia, and the big toe muscle that attaches to the plantar fascia. You can do some of these exercises at home to relieve your plantar fasciitis pain but there are some important changes you'll need to make.

If you're trying to relieve plantar fasciitis pain at home, don't use your thumb when stretching your plantar fascia because you can hurt yourself and wind up in more pain. You can easily replicate the pressure that you need using a lacrosse, golf, or tennis ball. Place the ball along the plantar fascia and then stretch the foot. You'll want to make sure you start with your foot flexed as shown and then pin the plantar fascia with your lacrosse, golf, or tennis ball and then take the foot into extension.

In order to work through the layers of the plantar fascia, we apply more and more pressure which can be a bit uncomfortable but our patients will tell you it's worth the relief they feel. When you move to the big toe muscle it's the same technique as before but you pin the muscle down closer to the arch of the foot.

If you'd prefer to come into our Towson Chiropractic office and start feeling better faster, click here or call us at (410) 296-7700 to schedule your appointment! We can help you get relief from plantar fasciitis pain quickly so you can get back to living your life pain-free.