Plantar fasciitis is a painful foot condition that can make you feel like you’re in agony every time you take a step. Primarily impacting your heels, as well as the bottom of your foot from toe to heel, plantar fasciitis can cause stabbing pain when you walk and take months to fully resolve.
While you’re healing from plantar fasciitis, home remedies, combined with treatment from podiatrists Ryan Golub, DPM, and Zachary Flynn, DPM, AACFAS, at Arizona Foot Health in Phoenix, Arizona, can relieve your symptoms. Discover what simple steps you can take at home to help with plantar fasciitis pain.
If you’re experiencing significant pain from plantar fasciitis, try these at-home treatments for quick relief.
Resting your feet helps relieve the inflammation in the tissue in your plantar fascia band while giving the tissues time to heal. Resting improves searing pain and accelerates the healing process.
Stretches that target the bottom of your foot, calves, and Achilles tendon help warm up the plantar fascia and relieve pain. They also help strengthen your feet and lower legs, improving balance and stability in the entire area.
When you move, the proper footwear helps reduce or resolve plantar fasciitis pain entirely. Try to always wear shoes, even walking around the house, as going barefoot can stress your plantar fascia more.
Choose supportive shoes, and avoid any shoes with heels. If you’re exercising or playing sports, choose the right shoes for your activity, and replace them frequently.
Icing your plantar fasciitis helps reduce inflammation and relieves pain. You can wrap an ice pack or bag of frozen vegetables in a towel and put it on your heel for 15-20 minutes. You can also try soaking your heel in a bowl of ice water.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen, are available over the counter and combine pain relief with lowering inflammation. Make sure to stick to the recommended dosage in the directions.
You can massage your heels, the arches of your foot, and your calves for pain relief. One simple massage technique that often helps with plantar fasciitis is rolling a golf or tennis ball under your painful arch.
Low-impact exercises help your overall health and won’t cause any pain in your plantar fascia. Our team recommends exercises like cycling and swimming to stay fit without putting any pressure on your plantar fascia.
On the other hand, avoid higher-impact activities like jumping or running while your plantar fascia is healing. These can increase your pain.
If home remedies aren’t improving your plantar fasciitis pain, or your plantar fascia doesn’t seem to be healing, our team can help with further treatment. Additional treatments we might prescribe include custom orthotics, night splints, and additional exercises or physical therapy.
For more serious cases of plantar fasciitis, regenerative medicine can accelerate healing and resolve the issue for good. Amniotic tissue injections and pulse wave therapy are both noninvasive procedures our podiatrists recommend for treating plantar fasciitis.
For further support and assistance with painful plantar fasciitis, contact our team to make an appointment.
