Plantar Fasciitis and Foot Pain – Eight Self-Help Alternative Approaches

 

*These self-help approaches can help relieve the pain and inflammation of the tissue at the button of the foot involved in Plantar Fasciitis.  It can be difficult to eliminate this pain because it is aggravated by how much we walk every day.

Therapeutic approaches to help with Plantar Fasciitis:

1. Reflexology Made Easy:  from my blog

-Gently or firmly massage your feet with your hands. Be creative and intuitive.  Listen with your hands how your feet respond while you’re working on them. Notice how your feet and body feel that day and the next day.  More pressure is not necessarily beneficial. The key is to do something everyday if you can fit it in your schedule. Five minutes working on each foot on a regular basis can over time give you wonderful therapeutic benefits. Some of my clients have made it part of their daily routine to do 10-20 minutes on each foot.

Specific Instructions for Plantar Fasciitis:

Be careful not to irritate the painful areas by going too deep or too long. Work on the whole foot (90% of the time) and the painful area (10% of the time).  Be gentle especially on the areas of pain.  See how your body responds after working on your first initially for only 5 minutes.  Build up to working on your foot for 30 minutes or more. If the pain increases you probably went to deep or too long. It’s also important for all round circulation to work on both your feet.

Benefits of Foot Reflexology may include more vitality, better digestion, deeper sleep, dissolving pain, and overall less stress. Many times my clients have come in with pain in different places on their body (Shoulder Pain, Lower Back Pain, Sciatica, Back Pain) and they reported after working on their feet that the pain is either gone or significantly lessened.

Reflexology Suggestions:

-You can also use crystal massage wands, wooden hand tools. Listen to your feet. More pressure is not necessarily beneficial.  If you press or massage too powerfully, you may create more blockage, inflammation or pain in your feet.

– Initially start using light to medium massage pressure for 5 minutes a foot.

-Use only light to medium pressure to the inside of the arch, since the area is more delicate.

-Observe the bottoms of your feet for indented lines, which indicate those areas, need more work.

-With your hands carefully stretch your feet in different directions to increase flexibility and stimulate circulation.

-Massage in circular motions each toe with your fingers- helps sinus, clears the head

– Go on line or find a book foot chart to see where each part of the foot connects.

2. A simple Hydrotherapy remedy approach to help with foot, back pain or stress:

Soak your feet in hot water with Epsom salts and sea salt in it for 20 minutes in the evening. According to acupuncture, this is beneficial to preventing getting winter colds, helps ease plantar fasciitis, leg, sciatica and back pains. Afterwards, put castor oil on your feet and put socks on and go to bed (remedy from Edgar Cayce for pain relief)

3. Recumbent Yoga: stimulating circulation to help relieve plantar fasciitis foot pain.

Lie down with your legs spread in a V on the wall. Make yourself comfortable. Put a small pillow under your head. Your butt is close to the wall. Gently spread your legs farther, being careful not to go to the point of pain.  Caution: if you stretch too much you can tear ligaments in your leg or knee, which may take months to heal.  By opening up the hip you increase circulation to not only your hip and back but to your whole body.  Start with 3 minutes and you may want to increase to 10 minutes. The inverse posture helps invigorate your circulation and gives you a second wind. Contra-indication: Do not do this if you have heart problems or diabetes.  Before getting up, rest on your back for  1-2 minutes.  This can be helpful in helping your body relieve the inflammation and plantar fasciitis pain if done regularly. This technique is also helpful for sciatica, lower back pain, and low energy.

4.  Trigger Point Therapy for Foot Pain Relief

by Dr. Travell and Dr Nemo. This approach can effectively help to dissolve the intensity of acute and chronic pain in a series of sessions if done properly and consistently.  Please go on my website and click on pain relief to find this blog. The doctors who originated this technique felt Trigger Point Therapy was also helpful for lower back pain, shoulder pain, sciatica and back pain.

Use this technique all around the areas of pain and very gently on the area of pain. Be very careful of aggravating it through going to deeply or spending too much time on the area. Listen to your body.

If you press on this painful area and the pain increases instead of gradually decreasing, don’t do this technique on the painful area.

It can accentuate the pain. In those case, I use or teach my clients Shiatsu, or Japanese acupressure which is very effective in that case.

5. Qigong for Pain Relief of Plantar Fasciitis: Coordinate this technique you’re your breathing.  Breathing in too your abdomen (abdomen goes outward) Slowly tighten the muscles in your foot and calf to the point you start feeling stiffness not pain. Then as you exhale, smile as you slowly let go.  Practice this for 3 minutes initially and gradually build up to 10 minutes. Never go the point of pain.

6. Effort free Alpha Breathing– Go on my website to my blog and you tube which shows you how to effortlessly increase your breath capacity 10-50% and to change your brainwaves to alpha. Alpha brainwaves will help you release more endorphins (which also helps the body dissolve  Plantar fasciitis pain, Shoulder Pain, Back Pain) and help relax very deeply.

7. Guardian Angel Acu-Therapy- helps increase circulation in the leg and feet to help in relieve the inflammation and pain of plantar fasciitis. It is also helpful to relieve back pain, shoulder pain and sciatica.  Use the Guardian Angel Acu-Therapy device on your legs to stimulate circulation and then gently roll it on the bottoms of your feet. Start gently initially and for only 1-3 minutes initially. Use your commonsense and observe how your body responds to it. For more specific instructions on the use of the Guardian Angel Acu-Therapy device , you can have one free 20 minute Skype Online session on this, after purchasing it from me.

Guardian Angel Acu-therapy device

  Guardian Angel (comes with a hand acupuncture chart & carrying case)$159 US which includes shipping & handling Guardian Angel gives you the healing effects of acupuncture at your fingertips.  This gold-plated device has 300 spikes with which you can use to help your body dissolve pain and stimulate all the acupuncture meridians.  Dr. James indicated that if a person regularly used this in his 40’s or 50’s, he would lessen the chance of having many common ailments which people generally have as they age.  As a massage therapist, it has helped me everyday to clear the stress of the day from my hands and body.  Dr. Koryo, a medical doctor and acupuncturist, has found that working on your hands can stimulate every acupuncture point in the human body.  The Guardian Angel can easily stimulate every point within ten minutes. If you’re interested in purchasing one, please go on my website store. Thanks.

 

8. “Ankle Therapy Help with Plantar Fasciitis: Ankle Therapy stimulates according to Dr. James Minn, Korean Acupuncturist the removal of cellular waste in the feet, legs and throughout the body.  Using Ankle Therapy has helped tremendously some of my clients in removing the foot pain.  Don’t overdo it.

Initially start with  5 repetitions with each leg and increase slowly to 100-200 repetitions over one to two months (alternating 10 repetitions with one leg and then 10 repetitions with the other leg).

    Ankle Therapy$94.95 US list price – our price $89.95 (you save $5.00) which includes shipping & handling The Ultimate Weight Loss Program, Ankle Therapy was developed by a Korean acupuncturist. It increases circulation to your feet, knees, hips, lower and upper back and helps eliminate pain.  Poor circulation of blood may lead to all kinds of illness!  Blood circulating freely keeps every cell healthy. Blood flows down to the legs and hands, but doesn’t necessarily flow up sufficiently in a troubled body. As a result, the accumulated waste matter brings illness and pain to the body.  It can also cause trouble with your liver, kidneys, pancreas, or intestines when it doesn’t properly return to these organs. For example, one of my clients, who had been dealing with knee and sciatica pain for years, found after only three sessions on it (3 minutes each time), that she had no pain for 5 day. If you’re interested please go on my website store. Thanks.

 

Massage Therapy, Reflexology Massage, Acupressure Massage Sessions available in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, San Rafael, CA or Online Skype sessions:

I have helped many clients with Plantar fasciitis over the last 25 years with professional massage therapy sessions combined with other therapeutic techniques at one of my offices.  I can also teach you how to effectively help yourself or your significant other through online Skype Video session anywhere in the U.S. Thank you.

Robert Labensart, CMT, (#1692) CHT, RYT

www.therapiesforliving.com

robertlabensart@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The above information has been provided for educational purposes only! None of these therapeutic approaches treat or cure any health condition nor substitute for the need of professional medical intervention. Testimonies are anectodal only and do not represent what you may experience. Results vary. Check with your medical provider first before using these approaches.