Foot Pain and Plantar Fasciitis Can be Solved Without Surgery

If you currently have foot pain or plantar fasciitis, or if you have had it in the past - you know how it can totally interfere with your life.

I personally have had pain so bad that I literally could not sleep. Just the pressure of my foot weight resting in an elevated position on a pillow was excruiating. I would not wish foot pain on anyone.

Due to my own issues with severe periodic foot pain, I was compelled to search for solutions that were effective and expedient. My professional work involves standing on my feet most of the day along with walking. I also prefer an active life outside of my office and having foot pain was not something I wanted to try to have with me the rest of my life.

My search led me to some surprising solutions that totally eliminated my pain and I would like to share them with you.

Feet are an engineering miracle and when they function correctly they support all of our weight with no pain whatsoever. The human foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons and three arches. The 52 bones in your feet make up about 25 percent of all the bones in your body. Abnormal function of the joints, muscles, or ligaments can certainly bring about foot pain. However, problems further away from the foot can also cause pain in our lower extremity, including our feet.

The problem with most solutions to foot pain (and other painful areas for that matter) is the solution is solely focused on the foot itself.

Most people are used to a linear thought process when it comes to pain in the body. In other words, if they have a pain in their foot, the problem must be in the foot. Sometimes the problem IS located in the foot. The clue that reveals the foot problem is local, is that treatment directed to the foot itself relieves the problem and the pain goes away.

Conversly, if you have tried multiple treatments for your foot pain or plantar fasciitis unsuccessfully, you likely have a problem in your foot AND additional causation elsewhere.

Common medical foot pain treatments are:

Braces and Casts
Ultrasound
Laser
Extracorporal Pulse Activation Technology (EPAT)
Injections
Iontophoresis
Medication
Orthotic Devices
Physical Therapy
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP)
Surgery

When you have foot pain that is resistant to the treatments listed above, it is time to think outside the proverbial box.

In my case, my foot pain had multiple causes. Stubborn foot pain patients who have successfully conquered their foot pain have had multiple underlying causes. Once the impediments to healing foot pain are identified and handled with the appropriate treatment, success is achieved.

Perhaps the most common cause is a viscious cycle set up by the foot pain itself. Basically the nerves that trigger a pain response (called small diameter afferent [SDA] nerves) are actually registering the pain in a part of the brain called the parietal lobe. The longer the pain nerve pathway is activated, the easier it is for the pain pathway to fire.

Often the nerves that send normal sensations from the nerve endings in the foot are damaged. This cause is common in neuropathy due to diabetes, chemotherapy, gluten intolerance damage, etc. The way our body is wired is quite interesting when it comes to pain. As it turns out, the normal sensation nerves (called large diameter afferent [LDA} nerves) when functioning as intended, turn on circuitry that inhibits pain both in our spinal cord and in our brain. When the normal sensation nerves are compromised for whatever reason, the pain nerves become active. This situation is the reason why patients who consult my office receive a functional nerve evaluation for their foot pain, including plantar fasciitis.

Another area that can cause foot pain is a problem in your lower back area of your spine. If you weren't aware, the nerves that enable you to feel and control your feet come from your lower back. In fact the nerves that go to your feet are a branch off the sciatic nerve. If you have any abnormal function or damage to your lower back you could have foot pain. Part of my thorough evaluation is to determine if there is any involvment of the lumbar spine.

Additional areas of investigation necessary to solve the mystery of chronic foot pain and plantar fasciitis are:

A functional muscle evaluation to determine if any of the muscles that concern the feet are weak or too short.
A joint function assessment to determine if the foot and ankle joints have lost their ability to have normal end range of motion called joint play.
Evaluation of imaging (either x-ray, CT or MRI) to visualize the extent and nature of any foot anatomy derangements.
A questionnaire that helps me understand the dietary habits and overall health of the systems of the body (holisitic approach)

If the information from the assesments reveal nothing that requires medical or surgical intervention, chronic foot pain and plantar fasciitis will likely respond to my multi-modal comprehensive treatment approach.

The "recipe" I use to help people recover from chronic foot pain is a multi-modal one. This approach means I layer several treatment strategies that are aimed at helping the various issues I found during the evaluation. Typical methods employed are the following:

*Trigenics® Myoneural procedures for the lower extremity. Trigenics® is so effective because it combines three treatment techniques together simultaneously to get a cumulative effect that you would not get performing one at a time. It uses resisted exercise neurology to help reboot your brain to body communication, along with concentrative biofeedback breathing to allow the body to accept the changes, and lastly it uses muscle sensor manipulation which opens the door for the rebooting process to occur. The three together combine to create a “software update”. Physical, chemical, and emotional stresses can corrupt our software and create imbalances in the way the brain talks to the body. While most people work on the body, we work on the brain for results that are both immediate and sustainable.
Cutting Edge MLS M6 Robotic LASER. The MLS laser is a Class IV laser capable of producing the energy needed to achieve a therapeutic dose of laser energy for superficial as well as deep tissues. In addition, it also has a patented technology called "Multi-wave Lock System" which enables less scatter for deep tissue treatment. The M6 Robotic MLS Laser also helps minimize human error by robotically applying the individualized correct therapeutic dosage needed for each patient. During Laser Therapy the infrared laser light interacts with tissues at the cellular level and metabolic activity increases within the cell, improving the transport of nutrients across the cell membrane. This process initiates the production of cellular energy (ATP) that leads to a cascade of beneficial effects, increasing cellular function and health. Laser Therapy is proven to biostimulate tissue repair and growth. The Laser accelerates the healing process and decreases inflammation, pain and scar tissue formation. In the management of chronic pain, Class IV Laser Therapy can provide dramatic results. There are studies that show that laser helps cartilage to regenerate [1], [2], [3] and muscle and tendons to repair [4], [5]
Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF). PEMF is an electro-magnetic field applied to a painful or dysfunctional area of the body. What makes this therapy so powerful is two things: the strength of the magnetic field generated by the machine, and the pulsating of the field around the part of the body that is not functioning properly. PEMF works by re-energizing damaged cells via inducement of electrical changes within the cell that restore it to its normal healthy state. It improves the ability of the membrane of the cell to allow the oxygen, water and nutrients it needs into the cell…and allows the metabolic wastes to exit the cell in a normal manner. The pulsing action of the PEMF literally “exercises” the cells that are exposed to the magnetic field and allows them to normalize. There are also studies that show that PEMF helps tendons and connective tissue to repair faster. [6], [7], [8]
Dietary and neutriceutical support to diminish inflammation and support tissue healing. Fortunately there are many foods and nutrients that are known to decrease inflammation in our bodies. I advise all of my patients with chronic health challenges, including foot pain, to make appropriate changes in their diet and to take advantage of known nutrients that help quench inflammation. A helpful article on the subject can be found here. [9] Surprisingly, having a food sensitivity such as gluten intolerance (which I have) can contribute to the likelihood of developing joint pains in the feet. Even if you avoid gluten, but eat other grains or foods that look like gluten to the immune system, it can still cause someone to have an inflammatory reaction and the resultant joint or muscle pain. I have also found that many people with chronic foot pain have nutritional deficiencies that make their connective tissue weak and difficult to heal.

Specific joint manipulation to reduce of eliminate loss of joint play in the foot or ankle. [10] There are three movements within a joint: active, passive, and joint play. A well-esteemed medical researcher and clinician by the name of Dr. John Mennell taught the importance of proper joint function, particularly joint play, and how it relates to proper joint function, According to Dr. John Mennell's research, joint play occurs within the paraphysiological space (the last bit of normal movement beyond passive movement) within a joint. Joint play is the small amount of normal motion a joint needs to have in order to move without triggering pain nerves to fire. Without this normal joint play, nutrients cannot be exchanged, thus, degeneration occurs. According to Dr. Mennell, "Voluntary movements cannot be achieved unless certain well-defined movements of joint play are present. Movements of joint play are independent of the action of voluntary muscles. These joint play movements are very small but precise in range; it is upon their integrity that the easy, painless performance of movements in the voluntary range depends. Their integrity, not their range, is the basis of their importance. It is the summation of movements of joint play and movement in the voluntary range that make up the movement of the living anatomy."[11] The following statements are a few basic truths about joint play from Dr. Mennell's work:
1. When a joint is not free to move, the muscles that move it are not free to move.
2. Muscles cannot be restored to normal if the joint which they move is not free to move.
3. Normal muscle function is dependent on normal joint movement.
4. Impaired muscle function perpetuates and may cause deterioration in abnormal joints.
"The primary fault usually lies in synovial joints which make up joint play. And if the primary fault can be corrected, the secondary abnormalities resulting from it can usually be readily corrected too."[12]

HOPEFULLY NOW YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHY I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THE PROCESS WE USE TO HELP PATIENTS with chronic foot pain or plantar fasciitis ACHIEVE RESOLUTION TO THEIR foot PAIN WITHOUT RESORTING TO SURGERY. OF COURSE, THERE ARE PATIENTS WHO HAVE ACCUMULATED ENOUGH foot DAMAGE THAT THEIR ONLY RECOURSE IS SURGERY, BUT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CAN BENEFIT FROM THIS RESEARCH VALIDATED AND CLINICALLY PROVEN METHOD.

Don't keep this information a secret. Tell your friends and family that there is a solid non-surgical answer for chronic foot pain. Send them to www.MichiganFootHelp.com today.

*The trademark Trigenics® is owned by the International Institute of Trigenics® Inc. Johnson Chiropractic Neurology & Nutrition is a licensee of the trademark

For more details about the natural approach I take with my patients, take a look at the book I wrote entitled: Reclaim Your Life; Your Guide To Revealing Your Body's Life-Changing Secrets For Renewed Health. It is available in my office or at Amazon and many other book outlets. If you found value in this article, please use the social sharing icons at the top of this post and please share with those you know who are still suffering with chronic health challenges, despite receiving medical management. Help me reach more people so they may regain their zest for living! Thank you!