(Newswire.net — March 24, 2014) Darien, CT — With Spring here runners are raring to go out and pound the pavement. For most there won’t be a problem. For the unlucky ones a painful condition called plantar fasciitis could derail Spring running.
I am a chiropractor who has a large following of runners. Many see me for my spinal treatments that keep them in balance and out of pain. Many find me because I treat a condition called plantar fasciitis. This is characterized by painful swelling on the arch and heel of the foot. It is aggravated by standing and running.
You have to understand that the sole of the foot has an abundance of nerves that supply the brain with information on a continuing basis. Have you ever stubbed a toe? If you answered yes then you know what I am talking about. The greater the number of nerves the more pain you will feel. So a simple stubbed toe can hurt alot.
Most will do a “google” search to self diagnose. It is usually easy to tell if the pain is indeed plantar fasciitis. It usually only affects one side of the body. That side is more often the side of pelvic deficiency which means that your leg will be lower to the ground. As you move your legs the side with the pelvic deficiency will hit the ground harder irritating the heel and sole of the foot. Left uncorrected the tissue becomes very painful.
Now I promised a simple home remedy. Here it is. Take a cream of any type. Nivea, Oil of Olay, even Vaseline will do. Now rub the cream into the area that hurts, use it generously. Next take a quarter and rub the quarter into the area. You will need to rub deeply. A note of caution here, this will hurt if you have planta fasciitis. In fact it will hurt a whole bunch. Try to keep running the quarter for at least five minutes.
You will want to go in many different directions. Some directions will be more painful then the rest. This is where you want ot concentrate your efforts. The covering on the tiny muscles is called fascia. The fascia becomes irritated and causes increased friction of the surrounding tissue. This leads to a general thickening of the fascia and that will cause more pain in the heel and sole.
You wil want to continue to do this for as long as you can take the pain. Then you will tak ean ice cube and run it over the areas you just rubbed. Do this until the ice melts.
Congratulations you have just completed your first treatment. Give it 2 days rest before doing it again. We call what you just did the “Graston Technique named for British Osteopath William Graston who re invented this method. I believe it had its origin in Oriental Medicine and it was called coining. I think coining actually describes what we just did pretty well. They are very similiar and work equally as well. I encourage you to try this before spending excessive amounts on different appliances or treatments.
The treatment i outline in my book”Give Plantar Fasciitis the 1-2 Punch” goes into more detail. The treatment I have outlined here is a basic treatment that really can help many people with things you already have in the home. Naturally you should check with your doctor first before treating any condition. In this case you really can not do any harm.
There are some appliances that can help prevent a re-occurence. That information can be be found in my book as well.
I hope you have found this information helpful. I am always excited when I can help someone do something for themself. I can be reached at contact points below.