Painful Foot Arch

A painful foot arch is almost always due to putting too much strain across your feet over the last few days, weeks or even months. Your foot eventually develops little tears that form microscopic scar tissue; this is always a sign that the tissue across the bottom of your foot is being overworked. This morning pain is also known as plantar fasciitis and it is the most common cause of a painful foot arch and heel, especially in the morning before you get moving. But have no fear; there is a well formulated treatment plan that you can start applying immediately!

 

Watch This Video for our 4 Stage Treatment Plan!

Heel Spurs & Plantar Fasciitis [BEST Home Treatment!]

Follow our 4 stage treatment protocol!

 

Stage 1 – Make Sure

Make sure the pain due to mechanical causes and not something else!!! A large amount of people start attempting to treating their foot as if they have plantar fasciitis because they heard that they may have it. Please take the time to confirm that you do actually have it before you spend so much time and effort!

 

Heel Pain Differential Diagnosis Guide

This guide will help you confirm whether your heel pain is due to wear and tear, nerve problems, arthritis problems or traumatic problems. This guide is designed for the heel pain due to wear and tear or biomechanical problems, if you are suffering from any of the other causes of heel pain it is probably best that you see further medical diagnosis that a website like this just can’t provide.

Bilateral Plantar Fasciitis – Follow this guide if both of your feet hurt rather than just one. If both of your feet are in severe pain then it is more likely that you have suffered a back injury or that you have an inflammatory arthritis.

 

If you are sure that you have heel pain due to biomechanical causes, you should progress to stage 2 of the treatment protocol.

 

 

Stage 2 – Decrease Pain

Pain in the Back of the Foot due to Biomechanics

Now that you have confirmed that you have inflammation of the plantar fascia due to biomechanical causes => Follow this treatment guide for 3-6 months until the pain is gone or until you reach stage 3.

Remember if your pain has been there for months or years then you will probably need all of the 6 months or more. The general rule is that the longer you have had the pain => the longer you will need to try conservative treatment!

Make sure you have these before following this treatment pattern(or completed stage 1):

  • Heel pain on the inside of the foot or at the sole of your foot
  • Pain with initial movement after rest that goes away after a few minutes of activity
  • Pain in the morning that goes away with a few minutes of activity
  • Increased body weight, increased time on your feet or poor footwear/barefoot walking
  • Recommended that you visit your podiatrist and get X-rays, rule out neurological exam, rule out hyperesthesia, check for atrophy of the fat pad, a complete biomechanical exam and history to know for sure.
  • Remember to have completed stage 1 in making sure that you definitely have mechanical arch pain and not something else entirely

If you meet all of these criteria – Follow this guide

A)     Decrease inflammation through these methods:

  • Icing or cool water baths
  • Elevation
  • Oral Anti-inflammatories (Like Ibuprofen etc.)
  • Decreasing your activity level if you were overworking yourself
  • Padding and Strapping the tissue to decrease strain
  • Eventually a corticosteroid injection may be necessary

B)     Keep the inflammation away

  • Stretching exercises- Focus on the Achilles tendon and the plantar fascia
  • Evaluate your footwear- stop walking barefoot, wearing flats
  • OTC (over the counter) arch support or heel cups
  • Weight Loss
  • Evaluate biomechanics to see why the problem occurred in the first place

For a Complete detailed guide on each of these follow this link:

Pain in the Back of the Foot due to Biomechanics

Keep following this guide for 3-6 months, preferable see your podiatrist to reduce the time necessary for your treatment if possible. Once this amount of time has elapse => move to step 3.

 

Stage 3- Conservative Treatment Supercharged

Follow this treatment based on whether you are seeing improvement or no improvement

Pain on the Inside of the Foot due to Biomechanics

A) If there is noticeable improvement keep following the treatment outlined in stage 2.

B) If there is little to no improvement then follow up with this treatment protocol.

  • Night splints- a device which helps stretch your tissue while you sleep
  • A corticosteroid injection to decrease inflammation
  • Prescription orthotics
  • Immobilization in a cast or a CAM walker

 

Pain on the Inside of the Foot due to Biomechanics

 

 

 

Stage 4- Surgical Treatment

At this point if you haven’t already- you will need to visit a podiatrist for further in-depth studies to rule out nerve disorders, inflammatory arthritides, and stress fractures or finally look into surgery.

  • Test for nerve compression and Inflammatory Arthritis
  • Extra-corporeal Shockwave Therapy
  • Surgery

 Foot Surgeries for Heel Pain

 

Other Treatment Reviews

Graston Technique for Plantar Fasciitis

Active Plantar Fascia Release Technique