Featuring Dr. Beverley Steinhoff, DC Video Title: Plantar Fasciitis Causes & Symptoms

Duration: 2 minutes and 16 seconds

Plantar fasciitis is an actual inflammation of the very thick, membranous structure on the bottom of your foot. It's very thick, it's often very, very tight and when it gets inflamed, and it can become inflamed for various reasons, it creates a lot of pain. The classic sign of plantar fasciitis is waking up in the morning and stepping down onto your heels and having excruciating heel pain.

There are other causes of foot and heel pain, which can be arthritis, bunions, overuse injuries, poor mechanics, or walking mechanics. There's various causes for foot and ankle pain. One of the other things is that foot pain can actually be part of a more complex diagnosis. So that is one of the reasons that you should see a chiropractor. It's again, pain that is important and needs to be addressed early.

Plantar fasciitis actually is related to a lot of people with a high BMI or body mass index, it's actually from weight bearing structures. Obviously, there is overuse injuries, where the person is running with a faulty mechanic that can inflame it as well. Improper shoes can also be one of the reasons that people have plantar fasciitis, but one of the most common reasons is for a high body mass index.

When a patient arrives in an office with foot pain, again, a patient history is one of the key things to making a proper diagnosis. We need to look at the amount of time that they had the pain, perhaps causing injury, if there's underlying arthritis.

Once the underlying cause has been established for the foot pain, chiropractors have a plethora of different techniques, or a multitude of different techniques to use. We can use mobilizations, we can use icing, laser therapy, soft tissue therapy, orthotic casting of various tissues. One of the main things, and clinically effective things, is actually a stretch to the plantar fascia that occurs for three minutes. It's a long stretch, but it's very effective.

Foot pain needs to be diagnosed early and treated properly. If it's not treated properly, the pain can progress. It's just a simple thing to get in early to see your chiropractor and be diagnosed early and get the proper treatment as soon as possible.

Presenter: Dr. Beverley Steinhoff, Chiropractor, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Chiropractor