Plantar fasciitis, problem overview:
Heel Pain is a very common problem that seems to be “incurable” for most physicians and physiotherapists. I'm going to challenge this belief and show you what actually happens with plantar fasciitis, and why it is fixed. Many common treatments: NSAIDS / Cortisone Shots / Surgery / Stretches usually never capture the true cause of plantar fasciitis, and most people with plantar fasciitis remain valid for MONTHS without any real improvement. Why is this happening?
The nature of a normal injury:
When you have a normal injury, anywhere in your body, your body reacts to inflammation and a whole cascade of events (caused by chemicals causing inflammation) occur:
1. The muscles around the injury are tightened. (To force to have a rest)
2. The area becomes hot and inflamed (red and swollen, which means that nutrients enter the area).
3. Fascia (connective tissue around the muscle fibers) is also tightened.
4. Insensitivity to the site of damage. (Pain when touched)
5. The limited movement of the joints around the injury due to strained muscles and fascia, which we mentioned a second ago.
When this happens, the body tells the person to rest. Usually, guided by pain, we are forced to rest in the area, and after a couple of days to several weeks, the injury heals, and the muscles relax and unclench, the replacement disappears, the tenderness subsides, and we restore all our flexibility back. It may hurt a little for a while, but it is usually “live” pain. We notice it, but it's not so bad. After a couple of months, this pain slowly disappears, and we all heal.
What happens to plantar fasciitis?
First of all, the same events that were mentioned above took place. Difficulty / inflammation / swelling / restricted movement occurs when your heel hurts. BUT, instead of resting and correcting the problem, people push pain and try to ignore it (most people have to go to work / school and have no choice). This causes more damage. It also causes more and more tightness of the muscles around the heel and tightness in the fascia (connective tissue).
When this person discovers that it is useless, and that the pain drives them crazy, THEN they finally decided to rest in the area. Then they wait and wait ... sometimes days, sometimes even months (in throws or walking). When they try to walk again, the pain ... still ... THERE! How is this possible?!?!
They go to the doctor and try to shoot cortisone. They get great results, but they come back after a couple of months or a few weeks and with a vengeance. They are in pain, and they are more desperate.
They try support shoes and orthopedics, and they improve a little! It helps to get rid of the pain, but the pain ... still ... THERE!
They turn to a physiotherapist and try stretching exercises. It feels a little better, but the results are slow. A person sticks to stretching exercises and is discouraged because there are still no results.
They are searching all over the Internet and cannot find new treatments. There are magnetic therapy / acupuncture / laser therapy / ultrasound, etc., and neither of these exotic therapies seems to have proven that she constantly beats up heel pain.
How do you get out of this vicious circle? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?
So, we have a case of pain in the heel, which will not disappear. As we said before, the muscles and fascia are still tight. What does this mean, and this is the most important thing to know that when the heel (plantar fascia) actually “heals” from rest, the problem is “recreated” because of the dense muscles and the dense fascia! (They become stiff to restrict movement and make you relax. When you move a narrow and limited joint, it will damage itself and the surrounding structures, especially the plantar fascia)
No matter how much healing power you press on the heel area, if the tight muscles around the heel are not relaxing / relaxing, the area will never heal (rather twisting tongue!). This may get better, but the problem (stiff muscles and fascia) needs to be fixed FIRST. These tight muscles and fascia cause problems because they are pulling a constant force on the heel, trying to get you to rest. The body says to your leg: “If you move this leg or put pressure on this heel, I swear that it will hurt!” When it lasts long enough, the muscles and fascia “get used” to the flow. This “tightness” is great when you have a new injury, but in the long run a “chronic” injury, this tightness is what really causes you most of the pain! Tight muscles and fascia will cripple the way you walk and move, and shoot pain signals at the heel every time it hits the ground.
What muscles are pulling what? How do these tight muscles / fascia actually perpetuate heel pain?
The plantar fascia begins with the toes, goes to the heel, then it is wrapped around the heel and becomes the Achilles tendon. The Achilles tendon attaches directly to your calf muscles. They act like a puppet on your leg, when your calf muscles are flexed (flex), it moves your leg in different ways. Straight when the calf muscle is compressed (flexed), muscle strength pulls up on the Achilles tendon, and this continues to the plantar fascia to move the foot. If the calf is not functioning properly or excessively tight, it places the mechanical stress / stress on the plantar fascia. If you have any infection in the heel area, you can be sure that the calf muscle will be dense, perpetuating the problem and preventing its cure.
There are also other muscles under the plantar fascia that are deep in the leg. This makes the fingers move and also supports the arch of the foot. The integrity of the heel and its great strength are due to its support of the muscles.
Muscles also act as “pumps,” forcing nutrient-rich blood in the tendons and heel areas. When these nutrient “pumps” become rigid (and, in turn, less able to do their work), they do not “pump” almost as many nutrients into the wound (which are necessary for fixing plantar fasciitis).
All of this is caused by “micro-tears” (tiny areas that have been “dislocated”) in the plantar fascia, eventually emphasizing the plantar fascia. This is done due to excessive activity (going too far, standing on the legs all day or due to excess weight), from weak muscles in the leg / calf area or from severe heel injury (sports injury, etc.). Whenever your body captures these tiny “micro tears” in the plantar fascia, everything should be well and fixed forever. But! If the muscles / fascia are snug against the heel, they will pull directly onto the newly anchored area and tear the scar tissue (this is what the body uses to fix this damage), and you are back to square, with a serious injury (and a lot of pain).
Every time the plantar fascia heals, those dense muscles / fascia cause the area to burst again and again. It makes the pain seem to never disappear!
OK, so they are tense muscles ... Why not stretch them?
This is a huge mistake. When you have muscle / fascia density from an injury, it forms “trigger points” in the muscles and “sticking” in the fascia. They do not "relax", but simply stretch. When your muscles are tense after exercise, stretching works great to release them. When you have tight muscles from injury, you must use other methods to fix / release them. When you do the stretching prescribed by a physiotherapist, this causes these “trigger points” to get agitated and delay EVEN MORE! That is why these sites may be of little help (and cause more harm in the long term) with a person who has plantar fasciitis.
How in the world do we fix this “problem causing” tight muscles / fascia?
Mobilizing soft tissue in a specific order can quickly and easily fix these dense muscles and fascia. Soft tissue mobilization methods can release these “trigger points” and “adhesions”. This is done using special massages with various instruments (including your own hands).
I always find that plantar fasciitis, in particular, responds better to muscle release first with the help of trigger therapies (this can be done easily and at home, with your hands!). Secondly, the fascia must be released. Fascia is much easier to release when trigger points are released. This is usually done with a “break” fascia with special tools. This can lead to the formation of adhesions that have been formed in the fascia to separate.
If you have pain and inflammation, you will have tight muscles and fascia around your heel, no matter what. When you get rid of the trigger points, you should have less pain. When you get rid of the fascia adhesions, the pain will be less likely to return. Next - the kinetic length of the chains ...
What happens after you fix these trigger points and spikes?
The next stage of treatment is “stretching the kinetic chains”, which is stretched in a special fascia (stretching the fascia makes it less likely that the trigger points will return, and the predominance of adhesions in the facial phase).
You should also focus on methods that break away from chronic inflammation cycles (causing GOOD inflammation. Fighting fire with good fire!). This is usually done using cross rubbing massage techniques that you can do at home with household items. This “good pollution” can cause the body to fix all the damage done. These methods force your body to completely get rid of scar tissue and get rid of pain forever. When you cause good pollution, the terrible effects of chronic inflammation can be "unfinished." Good pollution leads to the formation of a larger number of cells as a result of injury, and also causes the body to additionally fix the injury.
Usually, when you have an injury in the plantar fascia, the scar tissue is laid in uneven patterns. Scar tissue looks like mixed spaghetti with fibers going in every direction. This is great for short-term treatment, but it is a weak structure. When you cause “good pollution”, the scar tissue is forced to be laid in the “direction of force” (which is parallel and uniform with other fibers around the scar tissue). This allows you to lay scar tissue in a parallel pattern, which is much stronger.
What about chronic inflammation? Why is this different from regular inflation?
When you have this terrible cycle for more than 4 months, the body "refuses" to heel healing and begins to break the area down. He literally begins to slowly eat the area, because he feels that it is “not used for the body” (scary, but surely). This is why ESWT works for some people as well as for prolotera. These treatments cause a concentrated and localized amount of “good” inflammation to fix the area. These treatments cause a certain type of heel injury to work properly. They push the body out of the cycle of chronic inflammation and into the cycle of “fast healing” and “good infection” to inflict damage quickly (but these treatments do not fix strained muscles / fascia). Cross-friction massage is very effective in this, and you can easily do it at home. Quick and effective relief!
I love taking vitamins daily, help me to heel?
I believe that most vitamins should be taken with a healthy diet. This includes raw foods such as raw vegetables / fruits / seeds / nuts, etc. The reason they are so good for inflammation is that they have enzymes.
These enzymes help the body a lot with different functions in the body. That's why my favorite supplement for Plantar Fasciitis is systemic enzymes. This causes the body to chemically stop chronic inflammation. When you have chronic inflammation for a long time, the body has all kinds of chemicals and toxins circulating in the bloodstream that limit your body’s ability to heal.
When you take systemic enzymes on an empty stomach, they enter the bloodstream and capture the damage that was caused by chronic inflammation. One enzyme, called serrapeptase, has an amazing ability to digest scar tissue. It literally penetrates your bloodstream, accumulates in the heel area, breaks and digests scar tissue!
What happens if I release the muscles / fascia, bring some supplements and get a good diet?
You should be able to fix heel pain fairly quickly. I heard about people having amazing results in less than a week. However, it all depends on many factors. I know that plantar fasciitis is NOT an incurable disease, and if treated correctly, it can be corrected as soon as possible! The hardest part is to accept how bad the injury is and make every effort to fix it quickly. Do not ignore the pain or push it. I know that after a few months of pain you despair. If something hurts, don't do it!
Why are they being treated regularly?
Cortisone: This chemical does not cause infection wherever it is administered. This means that a "chronic" (bad) infection and a "good" inflammation cease to exist in the heel area. When cortisone leaves the heel over time, the area does not heal at all, and now it is weaker than before. So, now the person has returned to where they started (actually the worst of all, because the heel area is weakened), and with a lot of pain!
Orhotics: It's great when you have a lot of pain, but if you think it will fix your heel pain, think again. All that orthotics "does" removes pressure from the heel and causes weak muscles of the legs (instant relief of pain, but does not eliminate the problem). When you wear orthopedics for many months, the pain comes right back (maybe weeks or months, it will simply return if this is the only treatment). Supporting the plantar fascia does not eliminate pain, but it does help, and I believe that they should be used, but they do not actually “fix” your pain (they help in relieving muscles / fascia, then you should slowly stop using orthopedics when pain ). If you have been wearing orthopedics for a long time, your leg muscles gradually became weaker and weaker. It will not help your heel pain.
Stretching: stretching a muscle with a trigger point leads to a worse (more tightness) trigger point. If you have pain, you most likely have some trigger points in your legs and calf. You must first release the trigger points, and then you can stretch the muscles so that the trigger points do not return.
Surgery: Not required. And when you get surgery, the muscles / fascia is still tight, so the pain comes back. Some people get results with surgery, but not so much. This is very rare.
Icing: everything is in order and securely safe, but does little. If you have recently injured your heel, this is good for the first few hours, but nothing happens after that.
Taping: works great if your pain is severe, but it weakens your leg muscles. So this is a temporary relief. I find it great to support the plantar fascia so that you can go a little further and give the zone a “break”, but it will not fix the tight muscles / fascia that cause pain.
