Plantars Fasciitis

Morning breaks, and you reach over aimlessly in the dark to quiet the blaring alarm coming from your phone. After briefly checking some leftover notifications from the night before, you sit up over the edge of your bed. “Time to get a run in before work.” you think quietly to yourself. As you stand up and take a few steps toward the bathroom, you feel a sharp pain arise at the bottom of your foot. You think to yourself “did I injure myself?”. Everything seemed fine the day before…

We’ve heard similar scenarios such as the one above countless times in our office. With a detailed history and physical examination, we often able to quickly diagnose this as plantar fasciitis. Like most diagnoses, our patients want to know several major questions when dealing with a musculoskeletal condition: What is it? How/why did this happen? How long will it take to heal? What can I do to fix it? What can I do to prevent it from happening again?

The first thing to know about plantar fasciitis is that it is very common. While exact incidence and prevalence are unknown, a recent article posted on the National Institute of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) notes that an estimated one million office visits each year are due to plantar fasciitis. The article also notes that plantar fasciitis accounts for about 10% of runner-related injuries and 11-15% of all foot symptoms requiring professional medical care. Also worth noting is that 85% of plantar fasciitis patients are usually between the ages of 25 to 65 years old1.

-So what is it? The plantar fascia is a thick band of fibrous tissue that originates at the heel and extends all of the way to the toes at the bottom of the foot. Functionally, it acts to stabilize the longitudinal arches of the foot, as well as provide shock absorption. It also has biomechanical function in the sense that it can elongate during the contact/stance phase of gait and aid in propulsion or spring, along with the Spring Ligament of the foot.