If you've tried all the usual treatments - ice packs, taping, inserts for your shoes, and more - but you've found no relief for your pain, consider the following information on the right side.

You might be surprised

We have found in working with heel pain patients that heel pain is much more complex than a calcium deposit with local inflammation. Not all heel pain cases are associated with a bone spur. Even if a spur is visible on X-ray, the spur may not be causing your pain. Many people have heel spurs but do not experience heel pain.

Spinal or cranial bone misalignment can shift the center of gravity for your body to one side. Even a slight shift causes one foot to consistently carry more weight than your other foot carries over time. Without correction, pain from bone spurs and plantar fasciitis often recur even after temporarily effective local treatment. If you have chronic inflammation in another part of your body, for example allergy inflammation or sinus infection, your immune system is continually irritated - hyperactive - making it more difficult for your body to eliminate the inflammation from heel spur. Some patients with heel pain also have low back pain. Our experience shows that freeing nerve conduction from the lower back often relieves heel pain.

In Chinese medicine, the kidney meridian runs through the ankle, heel, and the bottom of the foot. Kidney stress from overload of sugar, carbohydrates, and food additives, and other causes can create a referral pain pattern, meaning that kidney stress can be projected to the feet, causing heel pain. For this patient, treating the heel is pointless since kidney stress is source of Poor re-absorption of lymphatic fluid from poor circulation in the lower extremities can add to the difficulty of eliminating the inflammation and heel pain Misalignment of any of the 28 bones in your foot should be considered in the treatment to relieve heel pain.

Take the bite out of the heel pain

By combining treatment by your medical doctor, chiropractor, and/or physical therapist with our expertise, your heel spur or plantar fasciitis pain may be relieved more quickly. Treatments that will be tailored to your particular need:

* Acupuncture or acupressure

* Cranial shift technique (non-force adjustment)

* Myofascial release

* Lymph drainage

* NAET, JMT, BRT techniques for chronic inflammation and allergy

* Foot bone positioning (non-force adjustment)

* Chinese herb and nutrition supplementation