Categories
Treatment

Best Plantar Fasciitis Cream Review 2022

Searching online for plantar fasciitis cream’s is a bit like going shopping for a used car, a lot of snake oil, and not many remedies that actually work.

To ease this pain,

I wanted to cover a few of my favorite topical cream’s which I’ve used with relative success to relieve the heel pain from my plantar fasciitis.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, and can’t give you real medical advice, and as such, what follows is simply my personal experience with these creams.

Zax’s Heelspur & Plantar Fasciitis Cream

The top selling cream for plantar fasciitis, and I found out why:

Zax’s works.

If you’re looking for a cream that can reduce your heel pain, this is the one.

Zax’s uses arnica, devils claw, and ginger as its main ingredients, I don’t know about you but arnica was my mothers favorite choice for all sorts of aches, scratches, pains and all things in between growing up.

Penetrex Plantar Fasciitis Cream

This inflammation cream is more of a general use cream focused on all sorts of aches and pains. While not a plantar fasciitis cream exactly, it still works like one and has a similar strength as Zax’s when used on your heels.

Like Zax’s it also uses Arnica, and does work. Its not quite my favorite, but I have used this on an old shoulder injury in the past and had some moderate success.

One thing about Penetrex I really liked was that it comes with a satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with it, you can get a refund. It sounds cheesy, but it really does lower the risk of purchase and alleviate any concerns about a potential snake oil buy.

Releve RX – The Ultimate Foot Care Cream

A relative new comer to my medicine cabinet, the ultimate foot care cream, once again uses arnica as its active ingredient to combat heel pain from plantar fasciitis.

The Releve RX uses a  non greasy formulation, while I still prefer the Zax’s for daytime usage, I like to use the Releve before bedtime as it doesn’t leave a mess all over the sheets.

I’ve also found it might be stronger than the Zax’s, but I’m not quite sure whether its a stronger pain relief or simply does a better job at soothing the area temporarily.

Bottom Line:

In case you missed it, all of the above use arnica as an active ingredient. So while a specialized foot cream for plantar fasciitis will help you ease your heel pain. If you already have a simple and general purpose arnica cream in the medicine cabinet for everyone in the household to get a use out of, you may be better off sticking with what you know and seeing how it works for your plantar fasciitis before going out and buying something else.

So how does a plantar fasciitis cream help your heels heal anyway?

Depending on the active ingredient the chemical side of things, the levels of pain relief, and the soothing characteristics of application will be different.

The chemicals, whether natural remedy plant extracts, or synthetic additives, seep deep into the tissues affected with your heel pain.

Application is generally required at least 2-3 times a day to be effective and pain relief lasts from 30 minutes to 4 hours. The major discrepancies here come down to seep times, and how potent the mixture is. Other factors, like are you staying hydrated, keeping up with your massage routine or practicing yoga every day?

The application is as easy as rubbing it into your heel, the affected area, and allowing it time to do its thing. One thing I found to really help was using compression socks along with these creams to really help manage the condition.

If you’d like to know more about how these cream’s work, I can recommend this video I found very helpful during research for this article.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. I am someone who suffered from Plantar Fasciitis off and on for 3 years before my heel pain fully subsided. The following information is based off my own experience and research into what works best for plantar fasciitis.

Jeremy