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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Never go barefoot, especially on hardwood floors and other hard surfaces. No flip flops (or heels) either, always make sure your shoes have some support.bought a pair of sneakers that I just wear inside the house. I had it for 6 months and literally tried everything else, but this change has had the biggest impact …even though wearing sneakers all summer has really sucked[/quote]

For many of us, this common advice about bare feet is really counter productive.  Going barefoot, doing yoga, and doing foot exercises and running in minimalist shoes, builds the small muscles in your foot.  Stronger feet brace and help protect the plantar fascia ligaments.    My D.O. and physical therapist are completely on board with this plan.  It's analogous to building your quadriceps to brace and protect the ligaments in your knee.   Every single person who has an ACL tear will eventually get PT that, in part, builds quads.

The "wear supportive shoes / orthotics" mantra is really addressing the symptom, like PP said.  It probably helps the pain.  Like taking enough tylenol would likely help the pain you feel in your neck that results from bad computer posture.  But the Tylenol isn't getting to the root of the problem in your cervical vertebrae.

As an aside, every podiatrist will enjoy selling you $500 custom orthotics that support your arch.  Improving your small foot muscles with home exercise puts nothing in their bank accounts.[/quote]

NP. Do you think [b]walking barefoot while wearing a heel cup until the pain lessens [/b]would help? I'm thinking back to when I had a bone bruise in my heel one summer. I was in a boot for 2 weeks, but then my doc put me in a heel cup (you can get a pair on amazon for less than $30), and said I cold walk barefoot so long at the heel was protected.[/quote]

PP here.  Yes, I do think that's a solid plan.  In fact that's actually what I had to do while at work (pad under heel but otherwise minimalist shoe) because I stand in the operating room, stationary, for up to 8 hours at a time.  Without the little memory foam pad from Scholl's, I thought I would die midday.

In that way, the cushioning really is like Tylenol — it masks the symptom and helps you get through the day.  Nothing wrong with that.  But it's not curative, like the surgery PP mentioned.

Building functional muscle strength in the small muscles of the foot falls into the "preventative" camp.  So you've got palliative (heel cup, NSAIDs, orthotics, cortisone injections), preventative (muscle development, stretching, lifestyle modification) and curative (surgery, TENS, acupuncture).   Re: the last group, the research evidence is light or weak for most interventions.  
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