What is Plantar Fasciitis?
Plantar fasciitis is pain which is felt on the bottom of your foot, around the heel, and the arch. It is caused by inflammation of the plantar fascia, a thick band of tissue on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone to the toes and creates the arch. It’s one of the most common causes of heel pain. The fascia becomes inflamed, swollen, and irritated.
What are the symptoms of Plantar Fasciitis?
How do you know if you have plantar fasciitis? Symptoms of plantar fasciitis include heel pain in the morning when stepping out of bed and during any activity that involves weight bearing on the feet, such as standing up from a seated position, climbing the stairs, or exercising. Pain while walking, pain in the arch of the foot, and tightness across the calf muscles are also symptoms.
What causes plantar fasciitis?
Plantar fasciitis is commonly caused by overuse of the plantar fascia, the thick tissue that runs from the heel to the toes. It often occurs in runners, and people whose work means they are on their feet all day.
Overuse can be caused by:
- Running or dancing
- Standing or walking on hard surfaces for long periods
- Wearing ill-fitting shoes which don’t support your feet properly
- Being overweight
- Repetitive high-impact activity
- A sudden increase in activity level
It is most common in adults between 40 and 60. Other risk factors are flat feet, a high arch, tight calf muscles, or a tight Achilles tendon.
Red Light Therapy (photobiomodulation) benefits
Plantar fasciitis is a common injury and causes inflammation and pain and it interferes with getting on with day-to-day life. It is very difficult to avoid using the foot while it is healing. Like any pain or injury, it is our body’s way of telling us that we need to change something, to rest, and to recover. Sometimes we need extra help to recover and that is where red light therapy comes in. It helps to speed up the recovery process.
You may have already heard about red light therapy as it has become more and more popular over the last decade to deal with pain, and inflammation and accelerate tissue repair. You may already have a red light therapy device and have not thought about using it to deal with the pain of plantar fasciitis.
Red light therapy (also known as photobiomodulation of PBM for short), harnesses the power of wavelengths of light which stimulates cellular activity and promotes the body’s own healing processes within the body. Red light therapy works on the mitochondria helping to repair the body’s cells to help them function more efficiently.
When applying appropriate doses of red light therapy to the foot in the case of plantar fasciitis, it helps to reduce inflammation and stimulate cellular activity, promoting the repair of cells, and alleviating pain. It speeds up recovery time by assisting your body to repair.
