Plantar fasciitis
Overview
Plantar fasciitis is a condition that causes pain on the bottom of your foot, around your heel and arch. You can usually ease the pain yourself but see a GP if it does not improve within 2 weeks.
Symptoms
The main symptom of plantar fasciitis is pain on the bottom of your foot, around your heel and arch. It's more likely to be plantar fasciitis if: the pain is much worse when you first start walking after sleeping or restingthe pain gradually gets better when you start moving around, but gets worse if you stand, walk or run for a long timeit's painful to stretch the bottom of your foot, for example when you raise your toes off the floor or walk up stairs
Causes
Plantar fasciitis is caused by straining the part of your foot that connects your heel bone to your toes (plantar fascia). It's not always clear why this happens. Plantar fasciitis is common. You may be more likely to get it if you: are 40 to 60 years of agerecently started exercising on hard surfacesexercise with a tight calf or heeloverstretch the sole of your foot during exercisedo a lot of standing, walking or running, or started doing a lot more than is usual for youwear shoes with poor cushioning or supportare overweight
Treatment
If plantar fasciitis does not get better, a GP might refer you to a physiotherapist or foot specialist (podiatrist). A physiotherapist can show you exercises to help ease your symptoms. A podiatrist can recommend things like insoles and the right shoes to wear, or splints to wear at night. If these things do not help, a specialist may offer other treatments such as steroid injections, or using a machine to deliver high-energy sound waves to your foot (extracorporeal shock-wave therapy). Less commonly you may be offered surgery. Physiotherapy is available free of charge on the NHS throughout the UK but waiting times for accessingphysiotherapycan sometimes be long. Podiatry may not be available for free on the NHS everywhere and waiting times can sometimes be long. You can also pay to see a podiatrist or physiotherapist privately.