self-medicating Planter Fasciitis

I had to learn a new medical term this past week: “planter fasciitis” which means chronic sore heels. It’s a condition I could not ignore anymore. I have two of the key risk factors: overweight with an increase in walking and running (I just recently bumped up to cover 12 miles/week and hope to get back to 20). The heel tissue becomes inflamed and doesn’t have time to heal before you pound on it again. Two million people are reported treated for this each year and so we can suppose that many more have it but do not seek treatment. Fortunately 90% report recovery within 10 months after making simple adjustments. This seems like an issue that is safe to self-medicate since a doctor will mostly likely prescribe steps you can read online. My response: new running shoes with a softer sole (the rubber seems to harden over time), be more careful when selecting shoes for days I will be walking longer distances, get new shoes oversized so I can fit a squishy heal insert, calf stretching especially when getting up from sitting, doing more biking and eliptical machine and do less walking and treadmill. Meanwhile, it’s more Ibuprofen. I’m certainly no stranger to IBU. Let’s see where I am after a few months with this.