Plantar Fasciitis
- Plantar Fasciitis Overview
- Plantar Fasciitis Causes
- Plantar Fasciitis Symptoms
- When to Seek Medical Care
- Exams and Tests
- Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
- Medications
- Follow-up
- Prevention
- Outlook
- For More Information
- Synonyms and Keywords
- Author and Editor
Plantar Fasciitis Overview
The fibrous tissue that surrounds muscle and separates various tissues of the body is referred to as the fascia. The bottom, or plantar, surface of the foot has a strip of this tough tissue, referred to as the plantar fascia, stretching from the heel to the front of the bottom of the foot. This "bowstring-like" plantar fascia that stretches underneath the sole that attaches at the heel can become inflamed by disease or injury. Inflammation of the plantar fascia is referred to as plantar fasciitis.
Plantar Fasciitis Causes
Plantar fasciitis most commonly occurs in people between 40 and 60 years of age. Plantar fasciitis can occur alone from injury or may be related to underlying diseases that cause arthritis (inflammation of the joints) such as reactive arthritis (formerly called Reiter's disease), ankylosing spondylitis, and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. Sometimes plantar fasciitis occurs for unknown reasons.
Next: Plantar Fasciitis Symptoms »
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Plantar Fasciitis
History of Running
The conventional thinking among most scholars is that early man (hunter-gatherers) ran in short sprints as a matter of survival—to catch prey and escape danger—but that running, and particularly endurance running, was merely a byproduct of the ability to walk and not a natural part of our evolution. The argument goes that (1) running is less efficient than walking (you burn more calories doing it), and (2) humans are poor sprinters compared to four-legged animals (who run much faster), and so it is concluded that we were never designed, or "born" to run. In evolutionary terms, scientists would say that we were not adapted for running.
But University of Utah biologist Dennis Bramble and Harvard University anthropologist Daniel Lieberman suggest otherwise. In their research, published in the prestigious journal Nature, they claim that the "roots of running may be as ancient as the origin of the human g...
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