One thing that I have come to the realisation with recently is that plantar fasciitis is due to too much load on the plantar fascia (kind of simple when you think about it!). So to treat plantar fasciitis you need to reduce that load. You reduce that load with weight loss, strapping, stretching and foot orthotics. Pretty much none of the other treatments for plantar fasciitis reduce the load. That does not mean that they are not helpful, as they will help the tissues heal, but I have to ask just how effective they are for plantar fasciitis if the load in the plantar fascia is not reduced.

That also raises the issue of foot orthotics for plantar fasciitis. The design features used on the foot orthoses have to reduce the load in the plantar fasciitis. Not all foot orthotics have design features that do that. Pretty much every single failed foot orthotic for plantar fasciitis that I have seen recently did not reduce the load. Adding design features to those orthotics help in most cases. Understanding these principle have really lead to what I believe is a massive increase in the success rate of using foot orthotics for plantar fasciitis.

In the last year or so I have add little use for any treatments for plantar fasciitis other than stretching and foot orthotics (with the right design features).

My latest blog post on plantar fasciitis is over at Running Research Junkie and on Its a Foot Captain!