Some medical practitioners think that overpronation can always be determined by the dropping and rolling in of the foot arch. But this is not always the case. Sometimes it can only be seen while doing foot scans, especially if the patient has a high arched foot.

Other common causes include high arch or low arch and other biomechanical abnormalities including oversupination which is a far more rare case than overpronation and causes problems especially for runners and other athletes, in this position the foot is less able to provide shock absorption. This should be properly examined and treated by a podiatrist / physiotherapist / biomechanist.

Excessive walking in improper footwear which does not provide adequate support to foot arch has also been attributed to plantar fasciitis. In addition, overweight individuals are more at risk of developing the condition due to the excess weight impacting on the foot, this also causes plantar fasciitis.

Heel spur is also taken as a common cause for this condition, but research has found that this is not the case. On x-ray, heel spurs are seen in people with and without plantar fasciitis. So it is better advised to do treatment for plantar fasciitis only after knowing the
real cause.

Plantar Fasciitis can first occur as simple heel pain, under the heel and usually on the inside area of feet, and also at the origin of the attachment of the fascia. It can start as pain when pressing on the inside of the heel and sometimes even along the foot arch.

This pain might be usually the first thing which gives you a worst start of the day in the morning as the fascia tightens up overnight. After a few minutes it eases as the foot gets warmed up. If it is in advanced state the condition will become even more severe and the
pain can get worse throughout the day if you go on doing activities like running, walking etc throughout the day. Another symptom is that stretching of plantar fascia tissue becoming more painful as time passes by.

In some cases there may be pain along the outside border of the heel. This condition may occur due to the offloading the painful side of the heel by walking applying pressure on the outside border of the foot. It may also be associated with the high impact of landing on the outside of the heel if you have high arched feet.

Plantar fasciitis and heel spurs are most commonly found in people who involve themselves in sports which include running, dancing or jumping. Runners who overpronate are more vulnerable to plantar fasciitis as the biomechanics of the foot pronating causes additional
stretching of the plantar fascia tissue and might cause pain.

Let’s just go through some general treatments which we can go through. The most effective method of treatment of arch pain is the placement of arch supports in the shoes. This counteracts the strain produced on the foot arches by biomechanical errors, causing them to cease stretching excessively.

A good specialist can recommend the inserts suitable to your needs, which will depend on the shape of your arches. These supports should lessen your symptoms within days. Always Change your shoes to a pair that result in less pain in the arch of the foot. In some cases this may mean wearing a sneaker with more support and for others this may be like wearing a shoe with  a slight heel rather than a flatter one.

First figure out which activities are causing the pain in your case. In some cases arch pain might start when you get involved in a new sport like running or activity such as a job that requires you to stand for a long period of time. You may need to rest for a while until the pain settles. This may involve sitting at work instead of standing or avoiding running until you are pain free.

Soaking your feet in warm to hot foot baths is both relaxing and also a very good foot care.Homemade foot bath recipes are easy to make and can be tailored to your personal tastes. This will help to give you relief from pain to some extent.

Seek a specialist’s help if the pain persists for long. Early treatment is the key. Your podiatrist will diagnose the cause of the pain and may recommend orthotic therapy. They will check your shoes to see if they are a contributing factor of the pain.

At the initial stage, treatment usually consists of two things: Anti-inflammatory medications and Heel stretching exercises. In most of the cases this can cure the pain to a great extent.

The most important factor accelerating the cure is nothing but rest, rest and rest alone.Take Rest until it is not painful. It can be very difficult to give rest the foot for most of the people as they will be on their feet during the day for work. By walking on the painful foot
you will be continually aggravating the injury and increasing inflammation and taking pain to the next level. You have to take rest as much as possible and put a stop to any unnecessary activities which place additional stress on the fascia tissue.

A good plantar fasciitis taping technique can also help the foot to get the rest it needs by supporting the plantar fascia tissue. Tape is to be applied in strips across the plantar fascia taking the stress off the affected foot for the healing to take place.

You can also apply ice or cold therapy to help reduce the pain and inflammation. Cold therapy can be applied regularly until symptoms have resolved completely.

Stretching the plantar fascia tissue is an important part of treatment and prevention of the pain. That is why heel stretching exercises are commonly advised to patients.

A plantar fasciitis night splint is an excellent product for curing the pain which is worn overnight for relaxing the tissue and it gently stretches the calf muscles and plantar fascia preventing it from tightening up overnight.

In a few patients, the nonsurgical treatment fails and surgery to release the tight, inflamed fascia becomes necessary for curing Plantar Fasciitis pain.

In open mode of surgery, usually an incision is made through the heel pad and the part of the ligament is cut to relieve the tension. Damaged tissues or heel spurs are also removed from the body during the surgery. In endoscopic mode of surgery, damaged area of
ligaments are located by means of various endoscopic instruments that are inserted inside the body.

What are the risks involved in surgical treatment of plantar fasciitis?

They include Infections resulting out of the surgery which are one of the common problems of all surgeries. Another thing is that, the arch of the foot can reduce, if the part of the ligament is cut more than required. Lastly, the surgery may or may not reverse all the effects of plantar fasciitis pain.There is always a chance that a patient comes out of surgery with all the symptoms of plantar fasciitis still in place.

Just like rest is prescribed as a conventional treatment for this kind of pain, it is also suggested even after the surgery, so as to enable the tissue to heal quickly. It normally takes about a minimum of 3 months for the tissue to heal completely and to resume its normal
function of weight bearing.

This surgical treatment involves quite a few complications and also its results cannot be assured. So it is always advised to think many times before deciding for taking surgery. Since prevention is always better than cure, the best way to protect your foot and the tissues supporting it is, to maintain a proper posture, wearing proper shoes and to ensure your body weight is distributed evenly on your feet. Then you will never have to worry about plantar fasciitis pain at all.

Pain and tenderness associated with plantar fascia strains are usually felt on the bottom of the foot. This pain might increase or decrease by stretching of the arch.

A more specific pain which is not associated with plantar fascia might be an indicator that something is wrong in that particular region. Pain while moving the affected area is also an indicator of the specific body part being affected.

We know that bones and ligaments work together to form joints, and that bones are joined together by ligaments. Strains may occur in ligaments occasionally. In the arch of the foot, there are ligaments that are located at the ends of each bone. These ligaments connect the bones to other bones on both ends and on the sides. Point tenderness and looseness of a joint are the general indicators of having a sprain.

Arch pain might have a variety of different causes. Just like for any other ailment, proper evaluation and diagnosis of arch pain is essential in planning treatment. A good general advice is to compare the injured side to the uninjured side. Injury may present itself as a distinguishable lump, a gap felt at that location, or a “crunchy” feeling on that spot caused by inflammation. The type, causes, and severity of pain are also good indicators of the severity of the injury.

Arch pain can be described in four manners

o    Pain while doing something.

o    Pain before and after doing something, and without affecting performance.

o    Pain occurring before, during, and after every athletic activity and also affecting performance.

o    Pain so severe that performance is impossible.

Heel Pain can be caused because of many reasons, its main symptoms are the following…

• Plantar fasciitis – This commonly cause intense pain along the bottom of the foot when you start walking getting down from bed in morning. This will go away once you start to walk around and return at a later time of the day.

• Heel spur – Heel spurs will cause pain and tenderness on the lower of the heel that will get worse as time passes by.

• Calcaneal apophysitis – Usually caused in small children, this condition will cause pain and tenderness at the lower back portion of the heel of those small kids. Heel will not be swollen in most cases.

• Bursitis – Bursitis in heel causes pain in the middle of the undersurface of the heel. It gets worse with prolonged standing. The pain at back of the heel gets worse if you bend your foot up or down.

• Pump bump – This causes a painful enlargement at the back of the heel, ladies who wear high heel shoes, beware of this.

• Local bruises – Heel bruises may cause pain, mild swelling, soreness and a black-and-blue discoloration of the skin.

• Achilles tendonitis - This causes pain at the back of the heel where the Achilles tendon attaches to the heel. The pain gets worse if you exercise or play sports, and it is followed by soreness, stiffness and mild swelling, so take good care of yourself.

• Trapped nerve – A trapped nerve can cause pain in heel, numbness or tingling almost anywhere like the back, inside or under surface of the heel. There are many other common symptoms such as swelling or discoloration if the trapped nerve was caused by a sprain, fracture or other injury.

MRI scan can be helpful in determining this disease though it can be ineffective at times. Visiting your podiatrist at regular intervals can help to track of the disease. Long term solution to this problem can be effected only with the help of surgery.

The bone at the bottom of the big toe is usually called a bunion. It happens sometimes that this bunion tends to be a painful and problematic deformation of your bones. This can be caused due to prolong irritation from a disease like arthritis, or sometimes it is hereditry too. This causes the base joint of your big toe to thincked and become large. This problem changes the shape of your feet making it difficult to find footwears.

This problem with bunions is very common and happens with misaligned bone structure at the joint and women tend to find this problem happening as they wear small shoes. This common foot health problem is usually curable with treatment options available.

Foot Orthotics are order to made equipments used to stabilize your body and prevent you from too much of pronation and suppination which can be a problem for your foot health while you do your daily activities like walking or cycling or others.

Metatarsalgia is a symptom which indicates that you are giving your feet more stree like high heeled shoes or are weighing too much or have a condition like arthritis or gout.