Plantar Fasciitis: Our Unique Approach

Plantar fasciitis has a very low success rate for traditional care. The plantar fascia can get inflamed and damaged and the cause is the chronic irritation of the arch of the foot due to excessive strain. Taking OTC pain medication just isn’t enough for advanced or atypical cases. Patients are often given pain medication and an orthotic at best. While this may help the simple cases, many people still suffer. I will list how we approach these types of cases.

Laser Therapy
Laser therapy can significantly reduce pain and inflammation. It can also stimulate the formation of new collagen tissue in the damaged tissue. We may laser the bottom of the foot for 3-6 minutes and then laser the spinal nerve root that controls the bottom of the foot. The purpose of this is to alter the neurological healing of the area. It may take up to 10 laser sessions. That’s the protocol that works best.

Trigger Point Therapy
Trigger points within the muscles are the primary culprits in unresolved cases. These muscles are in the back of the calf but all the tendons insert into the bottom of the foot. All trigger points of the lower leg have to be removed for lasting relief of plantar fasciitis because these trigger points alter how you move the foot. It can take between 6-10 sessions to resolve most trigger points. We do this in conjunction with the laser therapy.
All the muscles from the lumbar spine down are worked on.

Night Splints
Night splints can be purchased at local drug store. Several nights of wearing it is required before a difference is noted.

Home Care
Many things need to be done by the patient at home to help heal plantar fasciitis. You can get a foam roller, tennis ball and golf ball. You will use the golf ball to roll the bottom of the foot on. You can do this 3-5 times per day. It only takes 60 seconds per area. The key is to do it frequency for a short period of time (3-5 times per day for 60 seconds each area) rather than doing a lot all at once. The tennis ball can be used to for the back of the calf and buttocks and the foam roller can be used for the thigh.

Wobble boards are great for rebuilding the smaller stabilization muscles of the foot. It’s fun to exercise this way and only takes a couple of minutes per day. You should not do this until the trigger points are gone in the leg and foot (usually by the 6-10th visit).

Adjustments
To reduce strain on the bottom of the foot, we may adjust the foot, knee, hip or lower back. This is key to making sure that the joints that the plantar fascia is attached to are movable. Lack of movement in the joints of the foot can negate all the efforts previously mentioned.

Most of these therapies are outside the standard, traditional treatment of pain medications and arch supports. In advanced cases, a more aggressive approach is needed.

Chiropractic Seminars

I just got back from a weekend chiropractic seminar and thought that I would share some thoughts. Seminars are very cool because you learn up-to-date information regarding various conditions. It is always helpful because I will learn something that will help someone with a difficult condition.

Emotions play a role in physical problems
Tying in emotions with the physical pain can help alleviate pain quicker. If you are stressed because of our current economic crisis and you are feeling that tension in your shoulders, I can use the adjusting instrument to adjust you while you think about your stress. This can break the link between the cause of the physical pain (the mental stress). While you will still have the concern, it no longer can manifest as physical pain!

Certain movements will cause pain
Adjusting you during movement is impossible to do with our hands. The adjusting instrument works great during this procedure. If you hurt while bending forwards or backwards, we can adjust you during the motions of bending forward and backwards. Amazing!

Now or later?
Most people come in years after developing a problem, and are angry when they learn that it will take time and money to reverse the problem. Especially these days, come in sooner rather than later. Some of this weekend was spent learning the physiological changes that occur over time to muscle, joints, and cartilage. You don't want these changes to occur to you!

8 foods that create 90% of food allergies

Did you know that there are eight foods that account for 90% of all food allergies? Those foods are:

Milk
Peanuts
Eggs
Tree nuts such as walnuts and cashews
Seafood
Shellfish
Soy
Wheat

Food allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to a food that the body has mistaken as harmful. The body will create antibodies to fight what it sees as a threat. This leads to an increase in histamine and can cause what I call drastic symptoms and subtle systems. Here’s a list:

Drastic Symptoms:
Tingling in the mouth
Swelling of the tongue and throat
Difficulty breathing
Hives
Vomiting
Abdominal cramps
Diarrhea
Drop in blood pressure

Subtle Symptoms:
Irritability
Fatigue
Headaches
Nasal congestion
Skin discoloration

I never see patients with drastic symptoms. I don’t want to see them. If they can’t breath, they’re vomiting and have diarrhea the last thing they want to do is get adjusted. It’s the subtle symptoms that we are concerned about because they can occur everyday and patients just think it’s normal. It’s not normal to be irritable, be fatigued and have headaches and nasal congestion. Just because a lot of people may suffer from these doesn’t mean it’s okay. A lot of people smoke cigarettes. That doesn’t make it “normal.”

The key (and the hard part) is to try to figure out which foods aggravate you. A typical way to do this is to eliminate ALL of the foods for 8 weeks and then begin introducing one item each week in order to see which one causes trouble.

Another approach would be to overindulge on one of them for a week and see what you notice. This is kind of like a self-torturing experiment but often you will find what is the culprit rather quickly.

Dietary changes can make a big difference.