Acupuncture for Plantar Fasciitis Pain

If you suffer from Plantar Fasciitis (also known as jogger’s heel and heel spur syndrome), you’re more than aware of the pain you feel in your heel and the bottom of your foot, which is most severe when you take your first steps of the day or after a long period of rest. Pain is also felt when you bend the foot and toes upwards towards your shin. Plantar Fasciitis is a disorder of your connective tissue that supports the arch of your foot and affects both feet in around one third of cases.

Although the causes of plantar fasciitis are not entirely known, risk factors include standing long periods of time, obesity, and lifestyles that include little to no exercise. When the pain occurs, it is generally sharp, and could possibly be accompanied with numbness, tingling, radiating pain or swelling of the area affected.

What Happens If I Don’t Treat My Plantar Fasciitis? 

If you continue to overuse the plantar fascia while you have symptoms of plantar fasciitis, the plantar fascia can rupture. You can tell if this has happened if you hear a clicking or a snapping sound, a LOT of local swelling, and further pain in the sole of your foot.

However, improvement of symptoms are usually seen when individuals suffering from this disorder walk continually or a lot. If this is not enough to help reduce the symptoms for you, there luckily is something you can do, and that something is (you guessed it) ACUPUNCTURE.

How Acupuncture Can Help Treat Plantar Fasciitis

By trying acupuncture to help relieve your symptoms and pain, you’re on the track to relief. There are several ways that acupuncture can help, the first being that the insertion of the needles causes a local effect on your nerve endings, which releases neuropeptides (one of your body’s natural pain relievers). Research has shown that adenosine is released during acupuncture- this has both huge anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, as well as promotes fresh blood flow to the area. Fibroblasts, other local cells, are also stimulated during acupuncture and promote tissue healing to the area.

Other researchers have also found that the body releases its own opioids (another natural pain reliever in your body) during acupuncture treatment. Studies even show that after treatment, there is less activity in the regions of the brain that are associated with perceiving pain, and increased activity in the regions that regulate the body’s response to pain.

Overall, there are multiple ways acupuncture helps to treat your plantar fasciitis, so instead of simply trying to live with the pain, you can finally do something that will make a difference!