Heel Pain - How To Tell If You Have Plantar Fasciitis And How To Avoid it!

I f you've been having a lot of heel pain or foot pain lately and not sure what it's from you may want to rule out or rule in - plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis is a common pain complaint and is one of the most common reasons people head for their doctor's office.   Knowing whether it's plantar fasciitis or not can save you a doctor's office visit and get you started on the right path immediately saving you a lot of time plus eliminating the cause.

If you're having pain right now and it's in the heel, you can easily test yourself and see if it's plantar fasciitis. On the bottom of your foot on the heel end about one to one and a half inches in - press gently. Don't press hard because you don't want t make it worse. See if it hurts.  If it does hurt you may have plantar fasciitis.

Now you may be wondering what caused it, but the most common cause is wearing a new pair of shoes. It happened to me when I bought some new quality, cushioned tennis shoes for tennis and wore them just twice.  So if you're wearing new shoes, that's the likely cause. 

You can take the shoes to a specialty shoe-fitting place and see if they can adjust the arch but they may not be able to make any changes in the shoe.   Trying insoles, orthotics or insoles in the shoes may not help either.  Plus you risk the fact of the plantar fasciitis getting worse by still wearing the shoes. Stop wearing the shoes immediately.  I tested mine two weeks later just to see if it could be the tennis shoes causing my mild case and the plantar fasciitis came right back.

So wearing new shoes is the most likely cause. It can be caused by other shoes that have

changed their shape and support perhaps.   Of course when this happens it makes one reluctant to spend a lot of money on another pair for fear it'll happen again. So probably not buying and wearing that brand would be a first step.

Go back to other shoes that have been good to your feet. Like the quality shoes I bought above, an expensive or quality pair may just as likely be the cause of foot problems and foot pain as any other.  A lot depends on your arches.  You need good arch support to avoid future occurrences.   Consider the right orthotics. You don't want to get expensive orthotics unless they're going to work. There's a lot you can do to avoid plantar fasciitis and a lot you can do to treat your heel pain naturally and you'll get pain relief fast.