Hey Foot Geekz fans it's CJ here with Heather van der Geest from Divine Elements and today
we want to talk about plantar fasciitis and how naturopathic doctors treat that.
Hi everyone I'm doctor Heather Van der Geest and yes I do work in at Divine
Elements in Kitsilano and my main focus in practice is pain management and
injury prevention. Plantar fasciitis it's definitely a condition that causes
people a lot of pain and it's a condition that sometimes they're told oh
I just have to live with it. So I like to look at especially with any naturopathic
condition or any condition that comes into the clinic I always want to try and
look at what the root cause is and try and treat the person as a whole so when I'm
looking at plantar fasciitis I'm looking at has there been any trauma that
they've experienced that's kind of like pulled on their feet you know whether it
be walking on tiptoes whether it be like long-distance running but I'm also
looking at what their inflammation in their entire body is like because
sometimes when we have an injury in one area there's actually more of a systemic
issue of inflammation throughout the body that is something that I want to
try and get under control because that also helps in the recovery in the
circulation that we're trying to bring to that injured area. Excellent, yeah I
mean because even what you may not be familiar with naturopathic medicine and
oftentimes a naturopathic doctor will do similar
adjustments to let's say chiropractor or you know even some physiotherapists so
there's a lot of different treatments that they are trained in and they can help
with right? Absolutely and so I usually in clinic I may bring in some acupuncture
into the area to help with the plantar fasciitis I may prescribe like foot
baths at home or different stretches to do and that's where you come in as well
when it comes to like orthotics so we can take a very like like
multidisciplinary approach to helping with the plantar fasciitis. So how does a
footpath help with plantar fasciitis? What we're trying to do in that case is
increase the circulation to the area which is going to bring more blood flow
so that would be in the hot foot bath. We may also add in some different either
essential oils or herbs to just help in the stimulating like a mustard is
actually great for bringing heat to an area and so putting a little like a
mustard bath, it is a little bit messy but it does it does help to increase the
circulation to the feet and that's just gonna bring more blood flow clean fresh
blood and pull out any of those kind of do an exchange of toxins. Same idea with
acupuncture probably as well, just to stimulate circulation, maybe break
up some of the tissues as well, scar tissues and such. And that's actually
where some of my instruments and tools come in. So I have
it's called instrument assist assisted soft tissue mobilization and here I have
two tools that can actually. They don't look that dangerous. They fit very well into a hand
in order to be able to actually get in and if this is the foot actually get in
and kind of break up any of those adhesions that are underneath and kind
of stretch out that plantar fascia so and then if we need like a little bit
softer side we can go in another side to just help break up where
that where that is and you can you know... So that depends on how severe the
condition is and whether or not the patient can tolerate it? Absolutely, and we can start
very lightly and then get deeper as we're able to like break it down. So it
also helps to just stretch that out right because as we're sleeping that's
when our feet are more relaxed they're not in that like fully flexed or like
planted state that we are when we're walking and that's why those first few
steps in the morning are so painful is because it's actually tightened up and
then... it contracts ... and then when we go to take
our first step that's when everything gets stretched out. I mean is that something
a tool that people can buy for home use as well or is that um it's yeah it's
starting to even a spoon works. Now we don't have a spoon here to demonstrate
but we can probably shoot another little video here to show you
how to do that with a spoon at home. Absolutely, and we're just kind of gliding through
it and I can even feel in my hand it's just kind of going over the fascia and
kind of breaking up any adhesions that are in the foot or the hand. Awesome, now
if you have any questions for Heather please post those below the video and if
you haven't subscribed to us yet on YouTube do so right over there.
Have an amazing day. Thank you.