If you have pain in the heels on waking up and putting your feet down, you have a case of aggravated vata, which has caused inflammation of the plantar fascia. This is the thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes. This is common among older people.
One way to prevent heel pain is to oil the soles of your foot every day. In the dinacharya or the Ayurvdic prescription to be done on a daily basis, oiling yourself well is an important dictate. And while oiling has to be done without stinting on the amount of oil used, it has also been explicitly said that the three areas of the body that should be oiled without fail every day are the ears, the head and the soles of the feet.
These three areas are perhaps sensitive to aggravation of vata and hence the prescriptions. Definitely one would have much less head, ear or foot pain if one were to oil them regularly. This is as far as prevention is concerned from the ayurvedic period of view. Heel pain or plantar fasciitis is said to be common among runners, obese people, those who have flat feet or high arches, those who have tight calf muscles and those who wear improper footwear. Doing mild yoga-like exercise can help in alleviating the heel pain. Hold the heel and bend the toes and the ankle towards the leg. Hold for about 10 seconds and then release.
This can be repeated about ten times. Any exercise, which releases a tight calf muscle, will also help in reducing the pain in the heel.
Ayurvedic treatment would consist of massaging the soles of the feet with Dhanwantaram tailam and Pinda tailam. Take equal parts of the two tailams and heat it mildly. Apply from the top of the toe to the heel longitudinally; also apply the oil across the heel of the foot. Apply the oil liberally. After about 15 minutes, soak the feet in warm water in which you add lime juice or fermented rice water.
A week or two of the treatment along with exercise should help relieve the pain. Keep doing the massage as a daily routine to prevent recurrence.Pinda tailam is made from honeybee wax, Rubia cordifolia, resin of Vateria indica, Hemidesmus indicus and Sesame oil. Dhanwantaram tailam consists of the dasamoola (group of 10 roots), horse gram, barley, Sida cordifolia, greengram, blackgram, triphala, cardamom, cinnamon, rock salt and a whole host of other herbs.
Many people ask me whether it is possible to be so diligent about oiling oneself every day. It is not always easy but it will surely help prevent various vata diseases. Charaka lists 80 types of diseases caused by vata while there are only 40 types of diseases caused by pitta and only 20 of the kapha type. Charaka and other vaidyars stress the importance of keeping vata in balance and oiling oneself regularly, including the
soles of the feet to help keep diseases like plantar fasciitis in check.
The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at sheelarani.
arogyamantra@gmail. com/arogyamantra.blogspot.com