Healing Foot Pain With Chinese Medicine
I’ve Had Plantar Fasciitis Three Times In My Adult Life
Plantar fasciitis is the inflammation of a thick band of fascia under the bottom of the foot connecting the heel bone to the toes. It manifests most commonly as stabbing heel pain or a heel spur that is worse when you take your first steps when getting out of bed in the morning. A heel spur occurs from repeated tearing or stretching of the membrane over the heel bone or injury to the plantar fascia causing calcium deposits that build up forming a bony protrusion. I know this first hand because I have experienced it 3 times in my adult life.
The first time I had plantar fasciitis I was in my 20’s and I walked all of downtown NYC in flip flops for an entire summer. By the fall that year I had foot pain. It was hard to walk and maybe it started causing me hip pain too. The first thing I did was rub tiger balm and wood lock oil on it which helped take the edge off the pain. I eventually went to the podiatrist who gave me the plantar fasciitis diagnosis and treated my foot with percutaneous ultrasonic fasciotomy which I did not notice any relief from. He also gave me a weird thing to wear on my ankle that puffed up air underneath my arch. It only made walking awkward. I ended up wearing ankle braces and insoles from the drugstore along with my self treatment of tiger balm and began wearing 701 herbal plasters overnight. I also gave up flat shoes.
In my 30’s it resurfaced because I was in acupuncture school and I was wearing comfortable flat shoes again all the time. I recognized it in its early stages and knew how to handle it. I began wearing insoles again and I started getting acupuncture. My acupuncturist found that my hip and plantar fasciitis were very connected. The podiatrist in the past disregarded the idea when I brought it up back then. I couldn’t deny that whenever I got massaged in my foot my hip felt so much better afterwards and vice versa! One day in acupuncture school my classmate decided he should put an acupuncture needle right into the heel where it hurt. After that day I had such significant relief and after 2 more similar treatments I had no pain at all. I kept up with changing up my footwear and it didn’t come back.
In my 40’s, I am on my feet 5 days a week treating patients for 8-10 hours a day and still teaching yoga 2-3 times a week. I had just spent the summer wearing, again, flat shoes! On the first significantly chillier day of the fall I stepped off the bed in the morning to heel pain! I am supposed to know better, but as a New Yorker I sometimes chose convenience (in footwear) and feeding into my so called busy life over practicality and health. There is also the factor of being on my feet A LOT. Luckily, I have great acupuncturist colleagues who I can go to 1-2 times a week for my intense heel pain. Because of the amount of time I am required to stand around and walk I found that treating own foot pain between treatments was also needed.
I tell this story because I hear many patients report a slight improvement after a few treatments that were 7-10 days apart and in the same breadth say, “It’s not really working, I’m not better”. We have to be reasonable about our bodies.
Acupuncture creates a healing effect in targeted areas but as we use these parts of our body day to day we have to understand that it will not be a quick fix and treatment frequency is important. The amount I walk and stand on my feet plays a role in healing. In an ideal scenario, I could get acupuncture and stay off my feet until I have to get acupuncture again but the reality is I can’t do that! However, to be a good patient I do other things to help my treatments like, taking herbs, watching how I walk, changing up my shoes, not running for exercise and using topical liniments. Feeling slightly better is a very positive result especially after 1-3 treatments and its honestly not too shabby after 7-10 treatments as well. We cannot expect things to be over night and we are also trying to for habits of mindfulness and prevention.
It is important to try to work with your acupuncture treatments and not against them.
This is why as an acupuncturist I ask my patients to do a little homework. Sometimes that homework is to just simply be more mindful of your actions, avoid certain foods or add in certain types of foods, rest the body part that is being worked on and also rest your entire body as it is healing. For plantar fasciitis patients in particular some of the common homework assignments are: use insoles or be mindful of shoes/footwear, wear socks or supportive slippers in the house, do not walk on cold tile when barefoot, soak your feet in a hot epsom salt bath every night, massage your foot on a lacrosse or tennis ball. I also recommend some topical products that I have for sale in my practice or that can be purchased online. (Please see the links below.) * Be sure to consult with a licensed practitioner before using any products as well as checking for any allergies.
By Emily Grace Siy, L.Ac.
Check out my more recent post (3/20/23) on Plantar Fasciitis
