Research is homing in on new treatment approaches for heel pain from plantar fasciitis.

If you’ve ever stepped barefoot onto a child’s Lego or a jagged shell on the beach, you’ve experienced the searing pain it produces on the sole of your foot. Now imagine that pain is the first thing you feel when your foot hits the ground in the morning.

That’s the hallmark symptom of plantar fasciitis, the most common cause of chronic heel pain. About two million people in the United States are treated each year for the condition, which is reported twice as often among women than men.