is my Plantar Fasciitis ever going to heal?

Fish oil's anti-inflammatory, as is of course icing. Might consider taking or upping the dose of fish oil for a while. I skip the pain pills too.

And be careful with hills. They can stretch the soleus which pulls on the PF. I think the only time when uphills were a problem with an injury for me, usually it's the downs.

Lots of helpful posts here--I have PF also, and I follow many of the suggestions below, except for taking advil (allergic to NSAIDs) and not running on grass. For me, any kind of paved surface irritates my foot way more than grass/dirt. I can run almost pain-free on grass or trails, but not on paved surfaces or even on tartan tracks. What's the reasoning behind not running on grass? Do you recommend treadmills then?

Put Ron on the Rock wrote:

http://www.thesock.com

- use it every night

Take 3 Advil 4 times a day

Ice after every run and every three hours - freeze an empty 20 ounce coke bottle filled with water - roll your foot on it

Get orthotics from a foot doctor

Get a really cushioned running shoes like the Nimbus

Never do anything barefoot - use Crocs or supported shoes the moment you get out of bed

Don't run on grass or uneven surfaces

If it doesn't go away in 3 months - take up biking, swimming, or rowing and give all your running gear to somebody who will get some use from it

1. $5 pair of arch supports (Dr. Scholl's, etc. - nothing fancy) Warded it off for me two or three times.

2. Goes away when it feels like it.

Good luck...PF is such a b*tch.....

yeah, that wrote:

1. $5 pair of arch supports (Dr. Scholl's, etc. - nothing fancy) Warded it off for me two or three times.

2. Goes away when it feels like it.

Good luck...PF is such a b*tch.....

Thanks!

Yeah, has been my experience that eventually it does go away. My podiatrist said one can run on PF, as the poster above mentioned, but just keep treating it.

I use a night splint and keep shoes/birk sandals on even at home and have orthotics (aged, but podiatrist tells me, still functional). Some tell me they've used the less expensive arch supports and found them better than their orthotics. Might be worth a try.

your plantar fasciitis (PF) depends on a multitude of factors...

even if you take some time off and ice and it feels better, it will probably come back sometime during your running career, either in worse plantar fasciittis or anterior hip pain

there are a few things for you to consider:

1) the human body was not meant to run the amount of miles you are running, so you are automatically at a huge disadvantage

2) the feet are supposed to have more neural receptors in them than the rest of the body relatively, however, we destroy that proprioception by wearing comfy running shoes, which further degrades muscle mass

3) the area that most runners ignore are the hips, which in most runners (including you) are MESSED up... so if you have a weak glute medius (like all runners), then you will probably get femoral adduction/internal rotation (knee falling inside the hip) which inturn destorys your ability to pronate properly, compounded by running 12343 million miles, and voila, foot pain

so what the heck do you do?

rolling your foot on an iced water bottle will help with the pain, but will not alleviate your injury, you need to start strength training, and by strength training i do not mean doing stupid gym exercises...

i have a bunch of articles on my website on strength training for runners...

check it out... email me if you have any questions, i will be more than happy to help

www.jonmessner.com

-a retired runner

I had PF for about 4 months. I tried the cortisone shot, orthotics, a boot you wear at night similar to the strassburg sock, and NSAIDS.

All of these things appeared to help, but they just treated the symptoms. My pain didn't go away for good until I treated the cause.

Get the book Pain Free by Pete Egoscue. Read the first 3 chapters, then the chapter on foot pain. After starting the exercises/stretches in this book, my PF pain went away in about a week and hasn't come back since. No joke. Completely seriously. It was at my local library, so it didn't cost a thing. What do you have to lose to just try, especially if nothing else has worked for you?

Okay so here is my story from the past year or so, take it for what its worth....

October 2007

Completely ruptured my plantar tendon in my left foot during my conference XC meet with no prior problems with PF in either foot. First month afterward I couldn't do any cross training (no bike, elliptical, etc.) except swimming. Late November I started biking and elliptical and stopped swimming b/c I hate swimming.

January 2008

Decided to start training again, even though I knew it wasn't fully healed yet. Had a pretty decent track season considering I missed almost four months of running. After track, I decide that I want to run a winter marathon (January 2009). After a week off after track I start putting in a base with just mileage...no workouts.

Late July 2008

I start to feel PF in my right foot, after all this time, my left foot finally feels great. The PF in my right foot is very slight but still present, I ignore it and keep on building the miles.

August 2008

The PF in my right foot is really escalating and something I can't really ignore anymore. Running is no longer fun, and I dread doing it, but continue building anyway. I decide to enter a 15k in late August, and as soon as the gun goes off my foot is killing me. I am in great shape but my foot is really holding me back, I feel that if it wasn't for my foot I could easily run mid 49's for that race, I end up finishing in just under 53. What really did me in was the finishing kick when I realized that some mid 40's guy was reeling me in and my ego was not about to let that happen. That was my last run for the last four months.

December 2008

My marathon, which I already registered for, is not going to happen. But I have started running without any pain twice a week. Once a week I throw in some barefoot runs on the infield of our track. I truly feel that these barefoot runs strengthen the feet, BUT ONLY DO THEM WHEN THE PAIN IS GONE!

Moral of the story....

Don't take these things lightly, don't be a stubborn a**hole like me. If you have little or no pain, throw in some barefoot runs (maybe just strides to start out with). If you have alot of pain, take some time off and stretch the heck out of it (calf stretches, baseball catcher's pose, calf raises) and ice it. I finally feel great for the first time in over a year. Keep the faith, it can get better, but it won't happen overnight.

thanks for all the helpful responses, It makes me more optimistic.

Time off / rest does not make a difference.

Mine disappeared after 2-3 months. Treated as follows:

1) Orthotics

2) golfball - all day every day (I even do this now while I am completely painfree as a preventive measure)

3) stretch stretch stretch

Everything else seems to me to be useless.

Had mine for 3 years. Had 3 cortisone shots. 3 different sets of orthotics, £3000 on physio (about $4,500), worn the night boot, had acupuncture, golf balls, ice cups. When it first came on I was running 29:30 10k.

I have been running on and off over the 3 years but a lot of off. Took up triathlon and swam a lot. 6 months ago I stopped treating it. I almost stopped caring. And now... the past few months I have been running 40-60 mile weeks. I am back in close to 31min 10k shape. It is not completely better but it has improved a lot. Some people tell me it just takes time. Keep faith.

I have battle4d it for years. I still get occasional flareups if my shoes need to be replaced. 2 things --first break the cycle of pain with medication. I prefer alleve. second, i learned active isolated stretching from Terrence Mahon before he was the county's best distance coach. He recommended the Wharton stretch book. A whole body stretch is needed. All of the muscles and their blood flow is connected.

Long story short -

Got a bad case and took time off. One year later, still couldn't run. Went to Vegas and damn near wanted to cut my foot off because walking up and down the strip one time made it hurt so bad I couldn't get out of a chair.

I had a boot, iced it, heated it, took all kinds of anti-inflammatory meds and nothing helped.

FINALLY, went to an ART doc (discussed in a prior post). After 3 treatments I was back running (although slowly and very short distances) again. It's been 5 months since I started running again and I go see the ART doc once a month for maintenance.

What flats do you wear to prevent or deal with PF?

The advice was to take 3 Advil 4 times a day. Maybe I misunderstood, but that does not sound like a daily small dose to me. Assuming each Advil is 200mg, that's 2400 mg per day. I think up to 1200 mg per day is considered a low dose.According to the International Ibuprofen Foundation, "Renal impairment has been reported at doses greater than 1600 mg/day".They also suggest that over-the-counter non-prescription use is "used only for short-term treatment (usually taken to mean no longer than 7 days)".Unless I'm following the prescription of a doctor, I stand by my original advice.

sam kaiserblade wrote:

NSAIDS in that small of a quantity does nothing to your kidneys. Taking ibuprofen in small doses each day is good for you.

Don't worry you are correct. NSAIDS increases gastrointestinal permeability and so does exercise. If you take the quantity originally described and run a great deal, you run the chance of making yourself very sick.

I've got pain just past the arch barely on the ball of my foot. That would not be PF, right?

no it won't, on its own, esp if you want to keep running.

1) ignore all of the crackpot, crazy advice you will get here.

2) get to a good, sports podiatrist with a proven track record of success; get custom (soft) orthotics made)

3) get a cortisone shot to clear up the inflamation. (you can rest til forever and it will not clear up on its own)

after 2 lost years in college after running a 4:07 mile my freshman year; I was finally able to get it under control and it disappeared within a few months. I went back to full workouts, (100mpw in the fall, intervals during track season), etc....and have never looked back. stay positive my friend! you can beat it.

[quote]Alfredo Fettuccini wrote:

Lydiard referred to PF as the "North American Shoe Disease" because of the big cushy shoes we all wear. Get into the lightest shoes you can find; my choice is the Asics Pirannah SP which have very little or no heel and weight 4.8 ounces. They cured my PF almost immediately after I spent months trying everything else. Also, try pool running and whirlpool.

I got my very bad case of pf from the opposite of you. it was the early 70s, (there were no big cushy shoes yet). I was wearing Tiger Marathons (which were nothing more than a strip of rubber and nylon upper) for all of my road work which was 100 mpw in the fall; I had NO support.

Honestly i had pf since July and it is now starting to feel almost completely gone. I took time off, bought orthotics, saw a podiatrist, did rehab, took an anti-inflammatory, and iced everyday. The truth is it just takes time, and still some days are gonna be better than others but you just have to use good judgement when coming back as to how many miles you can do before your foot becomes irritated. Also I found out that I overpronate and bought kayano 15s to help with the overpronation.