If your feet hurt more the moment summer hits, you are not imagining it.

Sandals Are Not Doing You Any Favors

Summer means sandals, flip flops, and bare feet on hot pavement. These give your feet almost no support. Your arch is left to do all the work it usually shares with a shoe. For a lot of people in Pleasant Grove, this is when heel pain shows up, or gets worse.

There is a thick band of tissue on the bottom of your foot called the plantar fascia. It connects your heel to your toes and acts like a shock absorber. When you wear flat, unsupportive shoes and walk more than usual (hello, summer barbecues and yard work), that band gets overworked. Small tears can form. Over time, this leads to plantar fasciitis, a common and stubborn cause of heel pain.

The classic sign is sharp heel pain with your first steps in the morning. It often eases up after a few minutes of walking, then comes back after standing or sitting for a while. If this sounds familiar, your feet are asking for help.

• Swap flip flops for shoes with real arch support

• Stretch your calf and the bottom of your foot before getting out of bed

• Roll a frozen water bottle under your foot for a few minutes each evening

These steps can calm things down, but they will not fix a fascia that is already damaged.

If your heel pain has stuck around for more than two or three weeks, stretching alone will not cut it. At Kinetic Chiropractic, we use shockwave therapy to speed up healing in the plantar fascia. It sends focused sound waves into the tissue to boost blood flow and stimulate your body’s own repair process. We also offer red light therapy, which supports that same healing process at the cellular level and pairs well with shockwave for faster results.

If summer has your feet screaming by 10 a.m., let’s get it fixed before fall. Book a visit at Kinetic Chiropractic in Pleasant Grove and let’s get you walking pain free again.