Do you have foot pain?
Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the plantar fascia, a part of your foot that connects your heel bone to your toes. Symptoms of plantar fasciitis include pain around the heel and arch of your foot. The pain my come on gradually and start as a soreness and move through to aches. It may be worse in the morning, the first few steps when getting out of bed may be very painful or the first few steps if you have been sitting for a while.
You may usually help plantar fasciitis with things like rest, ice packs and comfortable shoes. From personal experience I found that using a small round plastic water bottle three quarter fill with water, put in the freezer until it was frozen and when your plantar fascia flares up simply wrap the bottle in a tea towel and roll your feet over it. Trust me its heavenly.
You’re more likely to get plantar fasciitis from
- weight bearing sports with vigorous take offs and landings and fast turns
- exercising on hard surfaces
- wearing shoes with poor support or wearing high heels too much
- being very overweight
- excessive foot eversion*
Massage may help with plantar fasciitis by releasing some of the tension in the plantar fascia.
* Eversion is the tilting of the sole of your foot outwards, away from the midline of the body during movement.
Related Posts

Yet more scientific evidence of the benefits of chair massage
A number of studies have identified that nurses experience a range of symptoms indicative of work related stress including
- Headaches
- Shoulder tension
- Fatigue
- Muscle and joint pain
- Overall quality of life
- Self-perceived levels of stress
- Anxiety
- Symptoms relating to anxiety
- improvements in sleeping
- reduction in pain, stress and tension
- reduction in headaches

How to increase the chances of a natural birth…
Interventions during labour and childbirth are on the rise but a large proportion of pregnant women would like a natural birth but are concerned about pain relief. Against this back drop, a recent randomised control trial looked at the effectiveness of a two day birth preparation course in supporting natural birth. The birth preparation course attended by both the pregnant women and their birthing partners, covered the standard medical advice and self-administered complementary therapies including
- visualisation, breathing, massage and yoga to enhance relaxation
- yoga and acupressure to facilitate labour progression
- breathing, yoga and acupressure to aid pain relief


