plantar fasciitis

It's called plantar fasciitis and affects millions of us each year. But an Orthopedic group has just come out with some ways to fix the pain without surgery.

We all have a strip of fibrous tissue that comes from the back of our heel across the bottom of our foot. If that tissue gets inflamed it can give us a pain that doesn't seem to want to go away. It usually starts after a lot of heavy walking---like holiday shopping. The first couple of steps in the morning after getting out of bed are the worst, then the foot kind of “warms up” during the day but you'll notice the pain returning in the evening as the foot gets tired from walking or standing all day.

Different things have been tried---stretching, steroid injections and even surgery, but they don't always work very well. But now the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society is telling us that your best course of action is home stretching. They recommend doing a very specific set of foot and heel stretches before you take your first step in the morning and four to five times during the day for the first month, then as needed after that. Plus they recommend adding non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, like ibuprofen, use ice on the heel and add gel heel inserts to your shoes.

Using these techniques should help put an end to that heel pain that's starting to slow you down.