Commonly referred to as heel spurs, bone spurs or hell bruising plantar fasciitis is a big pain for millions of Americans. Classically characterized by heel pain when weight your foot after a period of rest. It is usually worse first thing out of bed and after sitting for a while. The pain usually subsides after some light use and loosening up of tissues involved. What is Plantar Fasciitis? Plantar Fasciitis is actually a weakening of the tendons that run along the bottom side of your foot. These tendons start in your calf muscle, wrap around the bottom of your heel, split and stretch up to your toes. When these tendons are weakened the pain usually occurs at the point where they split which is pretty centered under the heel. What Causes Plantar Fasciitis? Plantar Fasciitis is most commonly caused by over stressing the weight bearing ability of these tendons that run along the bottom of your foot. This over working occurs when the navicular bone is allowed to collapse. When it collapses, the weight of your body is then placed onto these tendons instead of being distrusted through the bone structure of your foot. This puts great pressure on these tendons. Walking creates 1-1.5 times your body weight of impact on every step. Running creates 3-5 times your body weight in impact on every step. Add that up across the thousands of steps you take every day and it is no wonder these tendons start to get angry. The pain associated with plantar fasciitis is caused by the breaking up of your body's natural healing process, which means that the healing process restarts every time you experience the sharp paid of plantar fasciitis. What to Avoid With Plantar Fasciitis There are some basic things that you can do to avoid that will dramatically decrease the symptoms of plantar fasciitis. The first is to keep a pair of supportive shoes or sandals next to your bed. This way you can have you navicular bone supported on your first steps of the day. Second, find a good local podiatrist and have them fit you with support orthotics. This will ensure that your navicular bone is supported all day, especially as your legs and feet get tired. Third, roll your feet every morning on a golf ball and ice massage the bottoms of your feet every night. Avoid bare feet and non-supportive shoes. Flip-flops are your worst nightmare when dealing with plantar fasciitis. Look for companies like Birkenstock that produce sturdy, rigid support slip-ons. Other non-supportive shoes like Toms are also a bad idea. If the shoe collapses under your weight, it will worsen your plantar fasciitis. You should also avoid big jumps in activity as your feet will generally take the brunt of that work, potentially causing a flare-up of plantar pain. Expected Healing Time There are no guarantees with getting completely away from plantar fasciitis. When you do everything correctly, you get fitted for custom orthotics, you never walk barefoot, you roll and ice your feet every day, it often times is more managing and preventing differences than it is ever being healed. But you should start noticing relief in the first week.