Foot Talk Fridays : Heel Pain
Subtitles:
Welcome to Foot Talk Fridays!
Today we’re going to be talking about a pain in your heel.
So, you get pain in your heel particularly in the morning time when there’s a problem with the structure called the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a very thick band of collagen and its main purpose is to keep the heel attached to the front of your foot and to keep the arch of the foot intact. During the day, if your arch is beginning to collapse and come down like this, the plantar fascia begins to do its emergency feature and engage. But what happens is where it attaches into the heel bone becomes inflamed and angry. So, when you sleep or sit down for a while this area of the heel bone becomes bruised and tender and swollen, so when you then go to stand on it when you get out of bed, or up from sitting for a while, this is extremely painful. But, as your circulation gets going after about twenty steps it stops hurting.
Although, the underlying problem is where the plantar fascia anchors and attaches into the heel bone. There’s a few ways to help it. The plantar fascia is an emergency feature, it helps to keep the foot arch intact. It also helps to keep the ball of the foot intact to the nice little arch underneath. But, we need to help it if it’s doing its emergency feature every single time you stand or take a step. So, to bring the forefoot closer to the rear foot we would put an insole inside your shoe. The insole would also lift up your arch so the plantar fascia here can relax a little bit.
It’s a myth that the plantar fascia stretches, it sits relaxed. When you jump down off of a high wall or jump from a box or something, the plantar fascia then pulls taut but then it should relax as your arch goes back up again. So, if it’s being pulled taut all the time because the arch is collapsing in your foot then it is time to lift the arch and pull the forefoot closer to the rear foot.
It also sometimes is common if the foot for example starts to lean in a little bit and depress the arch, so we would also put a small tilt to get the ankle back to straight.
So, that is the most common cause for heel pain in the morning time called plantar fasciitis. What we suggest you do is make an appointment with a podiatrist and the podiatrist will assess you standing and see if your arch here, or sometimes rarely the lateral arch here on the outside is collapsing. If it is, they lift those arches back up again to take the tensile stress off of the plantar fascia.
Enjoy your Friday!
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