Plantar fasciitis is a problem with the central fascia covering the plantar muscles. What causes it? At present, there is no clear main cause in the medical field, but the main cause is still inseparable from the lifestyle of the patient. For example, in Taiwan, many people especially believe in the effects of foot massage, and they also feel that “pain” is good for the body. Therefore, on the health trail in the park, you can always see a group of people taking off their shoes and stepping on them. The result is “Taiwan’s endemic plantar fasciitis.” Health trails in Japan are paved with small round pebbles, and they are not fixed. They are by no means pointed and fixed like in Taiwan.

Classification and treatment of plantar fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is mainly divided into two types: acute and chronic:

1. Acute trauma (acute):
Trauma from direct impact and pulling, such as stepping on the stairs suddenly, as well as the health trail injury mentioned before… all belong to this situation.

2. Repetitive damage and degeneration (chronic):

Working in jobs that require standing for a long time, such as teachers, department store counters, etc., or being overweight, coupled with the usual lack of exercise, will cause repetitive injuries.

After middle age, you will be prone to plantar fasciitis.

Most of the patients with acute traumatic plantar fasciitis are in the early stage. It is recommended to take conservative treatments such as oral pain and anti-inflammatory drugs and fixation surgery. Rest more. If none of the aforementioned therapies are effective, you can consider local injection of steroids. A powerful anti-inflammatory agent that can quickly resolve the suffering of patients. However, if work and lifestyles do not change, plantar fasciitis may still recur, and the interval between steroid injections should be one to two weeks. It is best not to exceed three times, because the more frequent the injection, the worse the effect, more than three times, basically The above can no longer improve the symptoms too much.

If you are a chronic patient suffering from plantar fasciitis for a long time, you must fully discuss with your doctor and choose the most suitable treatment method in consideration of your lifestyle and financial ability. In addition to general physical therapy, injection of steroids At present, the more mainstream treatments in Taiwan are shock wave therapy and endoscopic surgery.

The magic formula for quick relief: wear high heels!

“The shortest effective way to treat plantar fasciitis is to take steroids or wear high heels right away!” Whenever patients hear me say this, they always open their eyes and look unbelievable. This is the case.

The symptoms of plantar fasciitis are mainly “heel” pain. If you put on high heels immediately, your weight vector will move forward. The pressure on the hind feet will naturally decrease, and the pain of plantar fasciitis will also be reduced. It will be alleviated accordingly, so we don’t need to give high heels too much sin. We can wear high heels at ease for social occasions.
But that is not to say that we are not advocating that women love to wear high heels more often. If we wear high heels too often, our heel tendons may shorten as a result, causing pressure on the plantar fascia when we are not wearing high heels. Get bigger.

Is it plantar fasciitis? Be careful of misdiagnosis and misjudgment

Plantar fasciitis is often misdiagnosed. There was once a patient who was referred to another hospital for shock wave treatment because of heel pain, but his pain was a bit wrong. Generally speaking, the pain of plantar fasciitis is The pain was the most when I first stepped on it, and it would be relieved after a few steps, but the patient started to have pain again after stepping on it too much, and even if he did not move, it would be a little painful. An X-ray revealed that there was a tumor in the calcaneus. Fortunately, it was found Shock wave treatment was not performed early, because the tumor in the heel may evolve into a pathological fracture, causing the instability of the foot structure. In this case, shock wave treatment is likely to aggravate the condition.

Another patient was originally diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, but as soon as the knife was opened, the necrotic tissue was infected and pus was discharged. After asking, he learned that the patient has a history of diabetes, which may be stepped on. Hard objects, hematomas in the heel, because of the poor resistance to diabetes, causing bacteria to invade, causing necrotizing fasciitis.
Although most patients with heel pain are plantar fasciitis, patients also need to undergo a detailed differential diagnosis to rule out necrotizing fasciitis, calcaneal fractures, plantar tumors, or ankylosing spondylitis in the heel Symptoms… wait, so as not to cause misdiagnosis and delay treatment.

Stretch, stretch, stretch again, and prevent plantar fasciitis together

In general, there are various causes of plantar fasciitis, such as: standing for too long, wearing too high or too low shoes, flat feet, hollow feet, sports injuries, walking too many roads or uneven gravel roads… etc. It seems that unless you sit on a sedan chair and do not walk, you can avoid plantar fasciitis in any way. In fact, the public need not be too panicked about this. Generally speaking, three main factors affect our life and health: 1. Genes, 2. External trauma, and 3. Lifestyle. Genes are innate and cannot be changed. External trauma sometimes depends on personal luck and is beyond our control. What we can do is to improve our lifestyle, and usually fully stretch our Achilles tendon and plantar fascia. , Walk and exercise more (uphill climbing is the best heel stretching exercise), and control your weight (walk more, exercise, and stay away from obesity). As long as you have good exercise habits and fully stretch the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon, plantar fasciitis will naturally stay away from you!