If you play sports, especially basketball, football, or track and field – or engage in other continuous activities on a hard surface -- , you may at some point experience the painful condition known as plantar fasciitis. It occurs when the plantar fascia – a thick band of fibrous tissue that starts at the heel and divides into individual segments which end at the base of each toe – becomes inflamed. This can in turn prompt bone spurs in your heel. The result is a stinging pain on the bottom of your heel. It’s particularly bad in the morning but usually lessens as the day goes on and can even disappear completely during exercise. Unfortunately, though, it tends to return with a vengeance the next morning.
Common Treatments for Plantar Fasciitis
If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to get rid of this irritating condition through the tried and true techniques of icing the area, stretching and lots of rest while supplementing with anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and Aleve. However, taking these drugs over an extended period of time is not recommended, and recovery typically takes months. In many cases, this conservative treatment regime is not enough to put an end to the inflammation caused by plantar fasciitis.
So what’s next? A physical therapist can recommend exercises designed to strengthen your lower leg muscles as well as stretch the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon in order to stabilize your ankle and heel. Your doctor may recommend that you try wearing a certain type of splint that will serve to stretch your calf and the arch of your foot while you sleep. The goal here is to stretch out your plantar fascia for a long duration overnight to cut down on the inflammation. There are also custom-fitted arch supports that can help more evenly distribute the pressure on your feet.
Unfortunately, plantar fasciitis can sometimes be rather tenacious, and even these more active treatments may not alleviate the condition. At this point, you typically have a choice between painful injections of a steroidal anti-inflammatory directly into your heel, or surgery to separate your plantar fascia from your heel, which can weaken the arch of your foot. Now, however, there’s a cutting-edge, minimally-invasive therapy that may be able to help.
Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) and Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Technology (EPAT)
ESWT and EPAT are the most advanced and highly effective non-invasive treatments for neuromuscular disorders approved by the FDA. This proprietary technology is based on a unique set of pressure waves that stimulate the metabolism, enhance blood circulation and accelerate the healing process. Damaged tissue gradually regenerates and eventually heals.
In the case of plantar fasciitis, ESWT and EPAT create capillaries that serve the heel area. This causes your body to work to replace the damaged blood vessels with new ones, which increases the blood supply to the area. This results in increased oxygen, which stimulates healing.
Pressure wave and shock wave therapies can also reduce the inflammation caused by plantar fasciitis by – believe it or not – increasing the substances in your body which cause inflammation. It does this by stimulate mast cells, which produce inflammatory substances like cytokines and chemokines. These substances can also help the body heal and regenerate healthy cells. These therapies can also cause your body to produce more collagen, which is vital for thick, strong tendons.
This therapy is relatively new, so it’s not available everywhere. If you’re in the New York area, you can find it at New York Dynamic Neuromuscular Rehabilitation. Their lead PT specialist, Dr. Kalika, has been an active member of the ISMST (international society of medical shock wave Therapists) since 2007 and has performed over two thousand procedures in different tendon anatomical locations. Their results with extracorporeal shockwave therapy have been exceptional because they perform targeted treatment utilizing diagnostic ultrasound guidance and combine it with very comprehensive rehabilitation approaches such as eccentric training and biomechanical correction.