The True Story of Plantar Fasciitis: And Why Heel Injections Should Be Banned

By Kevin Thomas Morgan

WHY did the author write a followup book about the true story of so-called plantar fasciitis? Because a reviewer complained about the previous book failing to provide enough guidance on treatment, which his Aspbergery brain thought was unnecessary, but the reviewer was right. This is his last book on the topic, one he considers closed, but which is ignored by the medical profession. As a veterinarian, that doesn't surprise him, given his favorite medical hero is Ignaz Semmelweis.

When a physician or other medical professional encounters symptoms of unknown cause, the responsible name for such symptoms, in the case of heel pain, is "Idiopathic Heel Pain," not plantar fasciitis. Such a label is demonstrably mistaken, irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

Sara, age 46, loves running her crafts store. But after 23 years of enduring heel pain, she had given up hope of a cure. Sara had even submitted to shockwave therapy under complete anesthesia at Duke Hospital, with no improvement.

Elise is a great runner. In her 20s, extreme foot pain side-lined her, and nothing helped. Expensive orthotics made it worse.

This pain is a symptom of something wrong, somewhere in these women's bodies. Which of the many potential somethings was it? Sara and Elise need to find out, because ignoring the pain could lead to serious injury.

Both women spoke briefly with Dr. Kevin Morgan, aka "The Mechanic." One week later, Elise ran 16 miles, pain free. Furthermore, Sara was free of her heel pain in a few weeks. 

It turns out, both women had problems with their "steering gear" (lateral hip rotators). Dr. Morgan diagnosed this problem and showed Sara and Elise what to do about it. 

No risky injections. No expensive gizmos.

Physicians are fine for most diagnoses, and they can rule out many causes of foot pain, such as fractures, bruising or strained ligaments. However, when they fail to find a cause, they will likely label your foot pain plantar fasciitis, and recommend a heel injection. 

This book is the product of years of research by the author, a skilled veterinary pathologist and researcher, life-long athlete and active Ironman triathlete in his mid-70s, with a fascination for solving bodily aches and pains. He recommends treatments other than pills, injections or surgery whenever possible.

Dr. Morgan knows how you feel. He had to crawl along the floor to reach the bathroom when he had his first attack of so-called plantar fasciitis. By the way, he now recommends a more appropriate name for this condition: nociceptive foot pain. Plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the plantar fascia) does not play a role in this widely misunderstood and painful disease. Thus, the misguided heel injections.

The book also provides a 21-day training program called "Body Meditation for Optimal Movement." It is designed to improve your movement skills (proprioceptive intelligence). 

This simple training takes only 10 to 15 minutes a day, and will pay big dividends as you tackle the ultimate and often painful endurance sport known as aging!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Velum
• Release date: Jul 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393759157

Book preview

The True Story of Plantar Fasciitis

The True Story of Plantar Fasciitis

Why Heel Injections Should Be Banned

Kevin Thomas Morgan

Vellum

Pain is an action signal, not a damage meter.

– Todd Hargrove, Guide to Better Movement

Contents

Fire, Fire!

1. A Man On A Mission

2. The Story of Sara

3. The Tale of Elise

4. Of Symptoms and Causes

5. A Caution For Runners

6. Where My Heel Pain Research Started

7. It’s Not Always in the Hips

8. Step One: Step Back!

9. Steps Two and Three: Listen and Stretch

10. Step Four: Your Hips or Core

11. Step Five: Thighs

12. Step Six: Calves

13. Step Seven: Feet

14. Step Eight: Everything Else

15. My Method in a Nutshell

16. A Pleasant Surprise

17. What’s in a Name?

18. Dear Reader

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by the Author

Newsletter Sign Up Link

Appendix: Body Meditation For Optimal Movement!

Recommended Reading

References

Fire, Fire!

Feet on Fire shutterstock

Your fire alarm goes off and frightens the crap out of you.

So you call the fire department (fire brigade in the UK) and get out of the house.

They arrive in minutes, turn off the alarm, and say,

That should fix it.

And they leave for the next fire.

You are left wondering,

What about the fire that triggered the alarm?

You wake up one morning to a terrible pain in your heel as soon as it touches the ground, but you can’t see anything amiss when you examine your heel.

Damn that hurts.

You go to the doctor and they say you have plantar fasciitis.

They give you an injection of cortisone into your heel and offer you painkillers, to turn off the pain (alarm).

They say,

That should fix it.

And they proceed to the next patient.

You are left thinking,

But what about the problem that causes my heel pain?

---

NOTE: There is still no consensus in the medical community concerning the cause of this condition that afflicts millions of people on any one day, and earns millions of dollars for the plantar fasciitis industry.

A Man On A Mission

Pills and the American flag

Pain is a good friend but a bad master. Pills should always be the last resort. Better to listen to what the pain is trying to tell you, as this might be critical to your health and welfare.

Yes! I’m a man on a mission. A mission to cure your heel pain and to stop doctors and podiatrists from giving heel injections. This mistaken and dangerous treatment is based on the assumption that so-called plantar fasciitis heel pain is due to inflammation in the heel, notably inflammation of the fascia (a band of connective tissue) in and near the heel. This diagnosis is clearly incorrect. A pathology study discredited this assumption (Lemont et al., 2003).

That said, I’d be long dead if it wasn’t for doctors, especially vascular (blood vessel) surgeons. I have an aortic aneurysm. They’ve killed lots of people, including Albert Einstein.

Thanks, Doc!

Have you ever suffered from crippling vertigo, unable to stand and on the edge of vomiting. Vertigo feels like sea sickness, as the room seems to rock or even jump around. This happened to me one time, due to dehydration. A doctor offered me the addictive drug Valium, which I accepted gratefully. It helped a lot, as did drinking plenty of water, which my severe nausea would otherwise have prevented.

Thanks, Doc!

About 15 years ago, I had severe pain in my ear. Thinking it was swimmer’s ear, as I swim a lot, I went to a doctor for some antibiotics. The nice young physician looked in my ear and said, It’s not in your ear, Kevin; it’s TMJ (jaw joint) pain. Are you stressed about something? Grinding your teeth at night?

As he spoke, the doctor started writing on his prescription pad. I thanked him for the diagnosis, as I couldn’t look in my own ear, and agreed that my life had been difficult lately.

I asked, Doc, what are you prescribing?

Valium to calm you down, and a strong anti-inflammatory to protect that joint!

I responded, I appreciate it, doctor, but no thanks! I’ll take a week’s vacation, meditate and sleep a little more, and try to chill out. This is a warning sign that my life is out of control. A heart attack will be next, if I continue down that road.

But the nice young doctor insisted on handing me the prescriptions, which he said would enable me to continue business as usual and get on with my work.

On leaving his office, I tore up the prescription and threw it in the trash, as I’d told him I would.

I followed my drug-free treatment plan, and the pain in my jaw was gone within a couple of weeks and I hadn’t subjected my body to toxic drugs unnecessarily.

---

Sometimes, you actually know better than your doctor.

This will almost certainly be true of your morning heel pain, aka plantar fasciitis.

I refer to so-called plantar fasciitis as NFP (plantar fasciitis). If you really want to know why, it’s based on the critical importance of lexical semantics (the study of word meanings and relations) in naming diseases. It’s explained in the chapter, What’s in a Name, near the end of the book.

Question Mark

Has this ever happened to you too? Have you ever gone to a medical professional for advice on a health problem and walked away