Plantar Fasciitis Won’t Go? Things You Might Want to Know

  The pain If you have ever suffered from painful heels or feet — especially those first steps out of bed in the morning, or when rising from a chair — you know how limiting plantar fasciitis can be. It’s not just discomfort; it affects every aspect of daily movement. Many people arrive at clinic after they’ve tried “everything” with little or no success. The hidden factor often overlooked? Excessive tightness in the bones themselves. The problem Plantar fasciitis is essentially a cycle of tension and inflammation that is very difficult to break.

• Inflammation is aggravated by overuse. But in plantar fasciitis, even “normal use” feels like too much because recovery time is so poor or not possible.
• Stress (both physical and emotional) can further intensify the inflammatory cycle.

A little-known fact: bones can become stressed. When this happens, they stiffen and resist the normal “torque and strain” that loading requires. In other words, stiff bones refuse to flex — and that rigidity feeds the problem. The solution? Increase bone flexibility. When bones regain flexibility, surrounding tissues experience reduced strain, inflammation eases, and the plantar fascia can finally recover. The feeling of lightness come very quickly. Self-help: stretching in water If you’ve been prescribed exercises for plantar fasciitis, you can make them significantly more effective by doing them in water. A swimming pool is ideal, but even a warm shower works. Here’s the sequence:

1. Stretch the problem area gently.
2. Take a deep breath in.
3. Add a little more tension to the stretch.
4. Breathe out quickly while holding the stretch.

Repeat this cycle at least ten times with water flowing over the stretched area area. Why does this work better in water? Water triggers the body’s dive reflex, a built-in relaxation response. Each fast breath-out, combined with water, helps release a small amount of tissue tension. Ten repetitions create a measurable reduction in stiffness. In the clinic: what we see At clinic level, the focus is the same — but with greater precision on the stiff bones driving the plantar fasciitis.

• The heel bone and the small bones of the foot often hold excess rigidity.
• The tibia (shin bone) is frequently resistant to flexion (torque) in any direction.
• Best results come from treating plantar fasciitis not as an isolated heel problem, but as a whole lower limb tension pattern — often beginning at the pelvis and working down.

The dive reflex and materials To maximise relaxation, practitioners use materials that are both diamagnetic and dielectric — such as water pads and copper pads — applied around the leg and foot. These initiate (partially) the dive reflex effect, creating a depth of relaxation to the area of concern, that a single practitioner cannot achieve alone. Does it work? Yes. All relaxation helps, but using the dive reflex as part of treatment consistently guarantees an additional layer of release. When the bones of the lower limb regain flexibility:

• The tension on the plantar fascia reduces rapidly.
• The cycle of inflammation is broken.
• Patients often describe a sudden sensation of lightness in the leg and foot immediately after treatment.

This seldom-used approach — increasing bone flexibility — is proving to be one of the fastest and most effective ways to relieve plantar fasciitis. Bone flexibility techniques were taught at the British School of Osteopathy as far back s 1978, as a”multi-hands” technique.