Plantar fasciitis...I haz it

Anyone else out there walk like a zombie first thing in the morning?  And I don't mean just because you haven't yet received your coffee infusion.  The arch of my right foot aches-angrily-in the morning but it usually gets better after a few hours.  I've been getting by with stretching and some insanely poignant and painful massage directly where it hurts, here:

Yep, a gross foot, clearly I run and wear boots all day

but I might start taking ibuprofen more often.  And I was just getting over several months of knee pain, so I feel a cozy familiarity with this, never straying too far from a nagging pain while I run...argh...

The pain is just bad enough to sometimes convince me on rainy and early mornings to hit snooze and not run.  It's hard to get up early, harder still when thunderstorms lurk outside, and the morning run is a complete casualty when you add a pesky pain into the mix.

If stretching and ibuprofen and some relative rest don't help, then I might try those dreaded night splints, you know, the ones you see in Sky Mall.  And after that, there's always a corticosteroid injection but I will never let it come to that...pointy needle into the arch of my foot, why no thank you.

The plantar fascia itself is kinda cool, and not just because I see a lot of foot and ankle problems so I'm pretty familiar with the anatomy there at the business end of our legs.   There is actually more to plantar fasciitis than you'd think, it's not just an inflammation of the bottom of a foot, in fact, lots of studies would hint that it's not really inflammation at all and it might just be little tears in the plantar fascia there along the bottom of our feet.  As we get older, or fatter, or increase our level of activity the overuse and overstress causes the tears and hence the pain.  Though the PF spans across our feet, every time I've seen someone with PF, and in my own feet, the pain clenches down on the same spot- along the medial surface of the arch, but also close to the heel.  I try to massage the area, violently, but that seriously hurts.  Some folks roll a tennis ball under their arch while seated in a chair, and damn, that hurts too.  Just a warning.  

Some smart people think it might not even be a fascia problem at all, but a muscle that's irritated.  Hard to say.  

Maybe it's just time for new boots?

I wonder if my knee pain caused me to run out of my normal gait pattern and somehow I've brought this nonsense on myself?  I seem to collect lower extremity pain in seasons and constellations.  If history proves itself, right achilles tendinosis is up next...I'll keep ya posted!

Any tips or remedies for helping me out of this plantar fasciitis/fasciosis mess?

Epsom salts, old timey + wonderful, dust 'em off from under the sink

Over the past few years I have become a really poor sleeper.  That being said, I don't use any prescription sleep medication, and I'm pretty cautious about over-the-counter sleep aids.  My friend Barb (Leah's mom) has moderate to severe arthritis and she suggested an Epsom salt bath to help me recover from races as well as help in the sleep department and so I bought some and tried them and love them and I wish I had started using them ages ago.  I just wanted to tell you about them in case your mom hadn't told you!  Also, it's summer and overexertion is now in season and this might just be the thing to soothe your aches and pains.

Epsom is a town in England with a preponderance of magnesium salt springs.  Epsom salts and bath salts in general are just magnesium sulfate.  Medically, magnesium is very useful.  At home, you can drink it, bathe in it, or you can make it into a paste and apply to bruises and sores joints or muscles.  

I might just move to Epsom, that's some nice running weather!

 A study of people with arthritis demonstrated that a daily 12-minute epsom salt bath greatly improved arthritic pain relief and without prompting, the study participants all commented on significantly improved pain.  

Per the Epsom Salt Council, bathing in magnesium sulfate is also a way to absorb magnesium which is good for our bodies (if we are deficient).  This stuff has lots of good uses in the garden too. I used to have a garden, and then I got some chickens.  These entities are mutually exclusive.

Anyway, Epsom salt also removes "impurities" but my internet research failed to define what those impurities* might be.

For $0.88 at Walmart I bought a carton of Epsom salts which lasted about 3 baths.  I didn't measure it as I poured it into the bath so it may last even longer.  The package suggests 2 cups of salt for a regular bath tub.  Or do it like I do and just dump some salt in the bath until you think it looks good and salty.

To expand my bath repertoire, I next spent $4.88 on this larger bag of scented Epsom salts, also from Walmart.  I like this particular scent, it is fresh but not too minty or eucalyptic so it doesn't smell medicinal.

Yes you can store your Epsom salts on a pile of dirty laundry

 It makes the whole room smell nice, too.  See in El Paso, in our small home, we don't have a bathroom door, I think this is "a thing" here because at friends' homes, there are no bathroom doors either, I mean, the toilet and shower area are separate and have a door but no joke, our bedroom has an alcove with 2 sinks, a mirror, and a bathtub (well, and a giant laundry monster) but still, that's strange, right?  I digress...anyway I for sure pour too much of this scented salt mixture into the bath each time.  It dissolves well and I notice that it effervesces a tad more than the plain salts.

In all honesty I like the store-brand, unscented salts just as much as the scented ones.  They both work the same, dissolve well and I am a sleepy bunny shortly after bath time.  It's nice to have the scent, but it's nice to save money, too.  I choose the salt bath route about once a week, for after longer runs or when I just can't sleep.

Another Epsom fan

 I haven't noticed yet if the salted bath is better than a plain bath for pain reduction in achy joints and sore muscles but I am not yet facing severe osteoarthritis, either. For me this foray into salt baths started as a sleep aid.  Osmotically it makes sense that a salt bath would draw out fluid from swollen joints etc but I am probably not so in tune with my body that I'd notice.

*By "impurities" I think they euphemistically mean doodoo.  Magnesium salts (like magnesium citrate and magnesium sulfate) are laxatives so I suppose if you were feeling a little constipated you could use the plain Epsom salts and mix a magnesium cocktail per the directions on the package.  I haven't tried it...pre-op bowel prep is no party, this is about the same.  Absolutely do not try this if you have kidney impairment or diabetes or high blood pressure etc.  Actually, don't do this at all unless your medical provider suggests it...please...I don't want to lose my job already :)  And I am 80% sure the paper carton from Walmart does not have a medical license.

Does anyone else like these simple salts as much as I do?  Or do you have your own go-to homeopathic remedies?  Or are you from Epsom and can share its history?

Mommy we took care of that pesky garden for you!

Barefoot running...lit review

 

I am pretty set in my ways and never caught on to the minimalist or barefoot running technique, despite some friends who insist on it.  I'd actually forgotten the whole issue until a few days ago when I saw a gentleman character running barefoot on a treadmill at the gym.  Yes, gross and confusing at the same time. 


So I did a little more looking into this barefoot running thing.  Reading about it in a popular magazine is somehow just not satisfying.  To the library, then, to investigate how the scientists study these matters!


The take home message in the study I read (Altman and Davis, above) regardless of the shoes you have?  No more heel strike for you...heel strike was linked to elevated pressure in the front of the lower leg (since you have to keep your tibialis anterior contracted to maintain dorsiflexion, I assume), and injury in general occurred 2.5 times more frequently than in people running with midfoot and forefoot strike.  We're talking back, hip, knee, ankle and foot pain, derived from the increased transmission of ground forces through your bones and joints when heel striking.

All that being studied, I've decided to stick with my shod ways.  I am not particularly a heel-striker.  The change I've made, though, is to completely avoid using that treadmill in the gym...

Of course, the researchers admitted that long-term top-tier research studies on this shod vs barefoot subject just don't exist yet.  I'm willing to collect some data and do some research:

Gonna need some input from minimalist types, subjectively, what benefits do you derive?