Did you know that there are 26 bones in your foot forming 33 different joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments holding it all together? One quarter of all the bones in your body are in your feet. They are incredibly complex because they have a very complex job to do. The keep us balanced and upright so that we can walk on two feet, run upright, jump, balance, and generally do the things that make us bipedal creatures.
What do you suppose happens to all that complex and amazing engineering when you put your feet into shoes? Most of its function is lost. We retain some of our lateral and forward/backward stability at our ankles if our shoes are low cut, but even that is lost if we wear stiff boots. With stiff boots on we might as well be walking on two wooden legs.
We wear all kinds of things on our feet, and almost nothing we wear actually supports the function of our feet. In fact many of the things we wear are specifically designed to inhibit proper foot function. Why would we do that – fashion? Really? If the new fashion were to stick both legs into only one pant leg, would you do it? How about if the new fashion were to superglue your hands into your armpits, would you do it? Obviously not, because you would fall on your face or starve to death. But we seem to be able to get along with mucking up our feet for quite a while before they start complaining.
Eventually though, most people start to have foot problems because of what we have been doing and not doing. Those 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments are there for a reason, and they need to perform their natural function or else they go bad. They are just like all other such structures in the body – use it or lose it. Most of us are loosing them.
What happens when we lose the proper function of these muscles is we end up with hammer toes, plantar fasciitis, bunions, metatarsalgia, achilles tendonitis, falling arches, and so on. More than anything, our feet just plain hurt. We can buy expensive orthotics and outrageous running shoes, but these just mask the problem, not solve it.
There is only one thing that can really solve these problematic consequences of progressive muscle and joint degeneration – get those feet moving again and doing what they are designed to do.
One of the tests I do on everyone during their first visit to my office is I have them close their eyes and try to stand on one foot. This test isolates and tests the function of the nerves and muscles in the feet and knees. A healthy person can balance with their eyes closed for at least 15 seconds on each foot. How well do you do? So often the person I test can only balance with their eyes closed for 1 to 2 seconds. This means the muscle coordination nerves are almost completely degenerated and they are a fall waiting to happen.
Most people can do much better with their eyes open, because then their visual balance system is engaged. But this is no help when your foot hits something unsteady or slips. The visual system is really slow compared to the foot balance nerves. You are halfway to the ground before the visual system is able to respond to the emergency.
For these people I prescribe eyes-closed-one-foot-balance exercises every day until their balance gets better. Fortunately these nerves for balance will grow back, and fairly quickly at that if they are challenged through balance exercises. This balance system is called the proprioceptive system. But this problem does not address the damage done to our feet by wearing shoes. Shoes block the normal exercise of all those feet muscles.
The obvious answer is to go barefoot and walk on natural terrain. This will exercise those feet properly. If you are fortunate enough to live near a beach, then walking barefoot is excellent exercise. But most of us live in a world without natural terrain. And even if we have a backyard, how many of us are willing to walk around barefoot in our backyard for an hour or more each day?
We need another alternative. Our feet need to be able to grip the ground with our toes. They need to be able to flex and bend to help us balance. They need to do the job they were designed to do.
A few years ago the barefoot running movement began. People that understood what feet were designed to do started running barefoot to give their feet the exercise they needed. But our modern environment is full of lots of unnatural hazards for feet, like broken glass and shards of metal. We don’t live in the happy, soft, natural world of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. So a few companies started designing super flexible thin shoes that would let your feet move naturally, yet still offer some protection from sharp objects.
Since these were sort of novelty items, these shoes were ridiculously expensive. I tried unsuccessfully for two years to get a pair I found from a company in Norway. They were only $90. I was not willing to spend $120 to $150 for the American made barefoot running shoes, since I did not know if my feet could even stand the workout. Then there was the whole Vibram Five Fingers shoes fad. The concept is totally cool, but I just could not wrap my head around wearing toe socks and then getting my toes into the right toe holes in the shoes without the occasional traffic jam.
Quite by accident a couple weeks ago I came across an inexpensive pair of minimalist barefoot shoes on Amazon. They were only $29! Now that is a price I can live with. I have been wearing them for the last two weeks and I am very happy with them. In fact I bought a second pair in a snazzier color just for the fun of it. Today I put one of the pairs on Ellen (yes we have almost the same foot size) to start building better balance in her feet as well. Balance is her major issue due to where her stroke took place. Find them here.
Barefoot shoes are not as good as walking on the beach because of the compressibility of the sand allowing greater foot action, but they are a lot better than regular shoes. Fashion shoes are fine to wear when you are sitting down and flashing your style, but they are not good for any actual walking. Comfortable, supportive shoes are nice for compensating for damaged feet, but they do nothing to make things any better. If you want to make a step in the right direction to make your feet happier and healthier, step into barefoot shoes.