Plantar Fasciitis and Running

[silver]

Please discount my reply because I work for a chiropractor.

We successfully treat lots of folks with PF. There are several therapies that are useful....I'm sure Wahine can explain them better than me....I just work the front desk. there's ART (Active Release Therapy) (the DC that I work for is not a "licensed" ART (little trademark thingie) therapist. But he does a manual therapy that is essentually the same. its a deep tissue massage while moving the muscle/tendon/fascia through it's range of motion (kindergarten explanation). also, muscle stimulation combined with ultrasound is very helpful.

the thing with PF is to not let it go on.....get treatment early. it can be a bear to get over and seems the longer it goes on, the longer it takes to get better. the way it was explained to me is that it would probably get better on it's own, if you gave it complete rest until it was healed, but that could take months.

[witeowl]

Not really an answer to your question (but I'll say that when I had PF, my podiatrist didn't believe that I should stop running).

My recommendations: Solidly increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids, whether through whole food or supplements. (They help reduce inflammation.) Deep massage is also good, but the golf-ball trick didn't work for me. Instead, what seemed to work is sitting in the hot tub and sticking the bottoms of my feet right against the spray jets.

DO make sure you get good running shoes, but DON'T spend money on custom orthopedic inserts. My podiatrist actually didn't recommend them, and in retrospect I think he tried to subtly steer me away from them, but he was willing to order them for me. They did nothing for me and I've heard from a number of sources that they're no better than the ones you can get from the foot care section of your pharmacy.

[snapdragen]

We just had a podiatrist speak at one of our Team in Training practice walks. He told us about a new treatment for Plantar Fasciitis. From his website:

"Shock Wave (ESWT) and EPAT Treatments: Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Treatment or EPAT uses pressure waves to stimulate the metabolism, enhance blood circulation and accelerate the healing process. Tissue gradually regenerates and eventually heals. This non-invasive treatment can be used for acute or chronic plantar fascitis, achilles tendonitit, shin splints and other tendon/muscle pains."

[Crankin]

I had warm water therapy, with some type of stimulation, which shot little pulses into the appropriate areas of my foot when I had PF. This was probably almost 25 years ago and it worked like a charm. I went to a podiatrist for treatment.
I *did* get the custom orthotics for my aerobics shoes, but my insurance paid fully for them and they also were to keep the stress fractures at bay, since i was teaching classes on horrible floors.