#21

I haven’t, but when I go see a specialist to get an injection this is the first thing they will do to check it isn’t that.

#22

I regularly see these in my clinical practice as a subclinical lumbar radiculitis. Your history matches as it began after your long flight, likely resulting in rounded lumbar postures that provoked a mild disc bulge to progress to compression of S1 nerve root. The mechanical sensitization of the downstream neural elements (including the medial and lateral plantar nerves within the plantar fascia) will make them sensitive to mechanical pressure when they course through muscles and around joints. It might not be that, but testing is cheap, very low risk and easy to do at home. Moreover, if it is that, and it remains unexplored, the symptoms can worsen over time to become much more impactful on your life as a disc herniation.

  1. Stop stretching the foot, hamstring, leg and back muscles. The tightness in the muscles in those areas is protective of the irritable neurology (if present) and the irritated nerves need to calm down to get the foot to stop hurting.
  2. Manage the normal lordotic curve in your lower back well during the day if you sit at work. Use a supportive lumbar roll when sitting and break work with standing positions.
  3. Try McKenzie Prone Press Ups (try Youtube or my site FixYourOwnBack.com) performed as 15 reps as frequently as hourly for 2 days, then reduce the frequency over several days to once daily in the AM on arising.

There’s more and I’m happy to share if you PM me or here if others aren’t bored yet, but try that and see if it helps. Happy New Year!

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#23

Hi Phillip,

You know, stretching the foot always felt like it was making it worse, and I stopped doing this a couple of days ago.
The other thing I’ve found counterintuitively is that getting up after sitting it feels quite bad whilst standing at the desk appears to ease it. And this ties in with what you are saying.
Apart from carrying on with the PEMF at night I’ll try what you suggest before anything else.

I’ll have to consider going to see my local chiropractor!

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to type that all out, it’s much appreciated.

#24

I had horrible PF about fifteen years ago (second bout). I went bare foot for three weeks straight (having just read “Born to Run, about barefoot runners). Ever since I’m either barefoot or wearing “barefoot” style shoes—no arch, no rise—and no problems.

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#25

I’ll have to consider going to see my local chiropractor!

This type of work is not as well known by most chiros and PTs but I teach world wide and might be able to direct you to someone if you need. Judging from the “whilst”, might you be in the UK? If so, Joel Proskewitz in London is top shelf.

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#26

Provided that it is true PF and not originating from your spinal nerves, see if you can find someone doing Low intensity Shockwave Therapy (LiSWT), also known as Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) in your area. I have been using it on clients for ~ 5 years now and it is amazing. I pair it with myofascial therapy and exercises and typically see resolution within 3 weeks. Prior to adding the machine it would take months to resolve. I will warn you that it can be painful but an experienced operator can minimize the discomfort.

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#27

I recommend OmniWave focused pulse sound wave. Relief in one session but likely to need 6-20 treatments depending on how stubborn this condition is. It is ECSW-extracorporeal shock wave but has no pain associated with it.

I have a neuroma that I treated with one treatment and my foot is happy. Altra shoes help with PF as well.

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#28

Here’s what worked for mine: BPC shot, hard fascia roller, and sleeping with a boot on that put the foot into full dorsi flexion all night.
If it’s suuuuper bad, wear the boot during the day as well.
I can’t say enough good things about the boot, anytime I feel a spasm starting up - I wear it at night. I haven’t had a crippling spasm in maybe 4 years doing this.
This is the one I have, you can really crank up the stretch with the straps: Amazon.com: Plantar Fasciitis Posterior Night Splint - Small : Health & Household

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#29

I had Plantar fasciitis in my right foot. Stopped me running. Had 3 shots of autologous plasma in my foot. After a couple of months…completely gone. It won’t help of course if your problem is spinal in origin but I completely recommend it if you really do have PF.

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#30

That’s well worth trying as those boots are inexpensive on Amazon. Thanks for highlighting.

#31

I’ve had plantar fasciitis twice in my life. When I was in my 60s it lasted over a year and another time less than a year. I tried all types of stretching exercises and shoe inserts without great improvement. However, I do feel I got some good results using a firm insole from Spenco and some benefit from a Dr. Scholl’s insert for plantar fasciitis. Their purpose was to keep the fascia stretched. But, they did not provide any miracles. They just helped ease the pain. Initially I simply ignored the pain thinking it would get better if I worked it out with exercise … that’s a guaranteed no no. It got worse doing that. Every morning initial standing was very painful and getting up after sitting for a while was also very painful which makes sense since the fascia contracts during the resting phase. Standing and walking after a resting phase then stretches the fascia back out and creates the pain as long as the fascia is inflamed and not healed. My eventual routine was to gradually add pressure to the fascia when initially standing using pain as my guide and reducing all walking to a bare minimum, but gradually increasing it every few days without overdoing it which can happen as the pain slowly subsides during the walk. More than once I had setbacks because I walked too much (or even tried to jog) as the pain decreased during a walk. It was a slow process and trying to stay with a very gradual increase in walking every few days was difficult because I like to jog and hike. I also searched for some type of brace that would keep the fascia stretched while I was sleeping, but found nothing useful.

My method worked for me, but yes try the other things mentioned, including BPC-157, and I hope you find that one of them works better than my method.

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#32

This detail is key information as I have the exact same issues. It confirms this is most likely PF and not nerve related. Furthermore, that boot available on Amazon now looks like a very good next option for treatment.

I’ll get a boot and update in a couple of weeks. (The BPC-157 can remain on hold for the moment).

Thank you @Jay and @rapaquest

#33

RPS, I hope you get results with the boot. I’m glad to hear it’s available. I did try something called a Strassburg Sock which was available at the time, but it was useless.

I’ll note that most of the time during my second bout with plantar fasciitis I either used a Spenco firm insert with it’s high arch to keep the fascia stretched and subject to less flexing during my short but necessary initial walks or the somewhat similar though softer Dr. Scholl’s insert for fasciitis. I continued using one or the other, depending on how comfortable it was, for months, before I gradually did periodic walking without a shoe insert to test for pain. Not wanting to get the problem a third time I remained very cautious after I removed the inserts for the last time, with only gradual increases in the distance periodically and with no jogging. Any hiking at the time was short-distance and only on level or mildly inclined trails. Months into my routine the pain was decreased, but not totally gone. My thinking was that there had been healing, but that there was likely scar tissue in the fascia which would continue to cause pain until I gradually helped the body work it out by that very gradual increase in distance and incline routine I had been following. At that point in the process I was purposely creating some limited and controlled pain in order to break up the scar tissue. Any way, that’s my story and it seemed to work for me.

If you have doubts about your pain being plantar fasciitis go to chatgpt.com and ask the question, “How can you test your feet to see if the pain is plantar fasciitis?” I researched self-testing before AI existed and found similar data to what you will find. On the heel test If you do palpitations of the area around the heel make sure to use strong force pressing against the heel bone where the fascia is attached. Otherwise, you won’t notice much. And, regardless, what you may notice will come nowhere near the pain of actually putting the full weight of your body on your feet.

1 Like
#34

Hello!
There is a little-known method of therapy: Hypertonic salt solution (8-10%), preferably about 9%
You need to do it like this:

  1. Prepare gauze of such a size that when folded 8 times, it completely covers the painful area
  2. Prepare a hypertonic salt solution: 10 grams of table salt per 100 ml of water - you will get a solution of approximately 9% (the water should be warm). In your case, you most likely need to take 300 ml of water and 30 grams of salt
  3. Moisten the gauze and squeeze it lightly so that the water does not flow, but the gauze remains moistened
  4. Fold the gauze 8 times and place it on the painful area
  5. Secure it to the leg (you can use a bandage, cloth or something like that)
    Important: Do not use anything for securing that does not allow air to pass through, such as polyethylene or something like that.
    The compress should be done at night and can be removed in the morning
    One time was enough for my friend. I don’t know how it will be for you, but after the first time there should be some improvement.
    Try it, especially since it doesn’t cost anything and it’s not difficult to conduct an experiment.
    I hope you succeed
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