Health & Fitness Bulletins

November 29, 2025

What Works Best for Plantar Fasciosis?

Historically, this diagnosis has been called plantar fasciitis. The “itis” in that word means inflammation. However, histopathologic studies now show us that inflammation is not a part of the condition we have traditionally labeled plantar fasciitis. The condition is more about the body’s natural healing response being overloaded by imposed demands. Therefore, plantar fasciosis works as a more apt term for the world’s most common cause of heel pain. This helps explain why recurrence is high and one in five cases is still symptomatic after a year.

Research finds a number of approaches to be effective or at least partially effective in overcoming this painful condition. Interestingly, until very recently, no one had ever compared these treatments, in isolation, against each other to see which was most effective. So Ravi Gupta (Department of Orthopaedics, Government Medical College Hospital, Chandigarh) and colleagues set out to do just that. Their results were published recently in the Indian Journal of Orthopaedics.

Gupta et al. gathered 140 patients with plantar fasciosis. Subjects had heel pain for an average of six to seven months — some as long as four years! They divided the patients into four groups. Each group received one and only one type of treatment. At one-year follow-up, all four groups showed statistically significant improvements in pain and disability, but there were clear winners.

Most effective: plantar fascia stretching
More effective: heat & silicone heel pad
Effective: calf stretching
Least effective: analgesics (pain meds)

If you are plagued by bad heel pain and home-stretching programs are not creating satisfactory results, definitely reach out to us.