Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Zy — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:03:27 GMT

Ever examine a toddler's foot? It's so undeveloped that it doesn't yet have an arch. One can deduce that the author is of the opinion that having flat feet results in the best mode of walking!

Just see how far you can walk when your feet are flat. The U.S. Army has rejected conscripts who have flat feet.

See how unhealthy your feet become after your toenails have fallen off after stubbing them. See how able a bare foot is after you've taken in a 25 cm (1") splinter, which happened to my brother when he was a child.

What an absurd, moronic article.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Kizza — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:57:38 GMT

my feet are pretty bad but i made them a lot stronger and by using Foot Wakers every day

www.telegraph.co.uk/.../main.jhtml

my advice is use them late in the day when feet are looser and massgae feet in palmers lotion or similar beforehand,

i hate wearing shoes too, my feet bash against the inside - overpronation that i cant stop. sandals for me!

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

halcyon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:11:03 GMT

Interesting, but I'd like to see more historical detail about the evolution of shoes.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Femina Claire — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:17:28 GMT

Our family has discovered CROCS. There is a space around your feet....the foot does not even touch the inside of the shoe, except for the sole. I say they are the best thing to barefeet!

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

HealingMindN — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 20:24:01 GMT

I remember when I had this desk job where I wore leather business shoes for at least 9 hours a day, 5 sometimes 6 days a week. A few months later I had a good look at my feet: I had developed this webbing between my toes; it was actually a skin that formed between my toes, but when I separated my toes the skin split and the sting was bloody awful. After some TLC for my feet, I always left my shoes off while at the desk. The body complies to however a person wants to 'civilise' it; reminds me of the ancient cultural practice of bonzai on the feet or foot binding on geisha women. I got away with whatever I could to try and keep myself healthy in that corporate environment. Why do I feel that I have to be underhanded now to stay healthy in this "civilised" society?

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

The Big Ragu — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:51:27 GMT

I always thought I was strange because I walked ball of the foot first and then put the heel down. It took military training to get me to walk with a hard heel into the ground. whenever I am barefoot I still walk ball first and it is silent.

The Big Ragu

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

remobec_203 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:36:34 GMT

I've found this very interesting since the last time Dr. Mercola wrote about it. I've been practicing the "fox walk" but it doesn't always feel right to me. There's not much information out there to know if I'm doing it right. I've always gone barefoot whenever I could. In fact, in my fourth year in college the school added shoes to their dress code because of me and a few friends. Never wore shoes anywhere. :-) However, I've also always been a bit unstable. I rarely wear high heels, but I fall out of flat shoes. I always said I'm good at falling: That is, I fall often but I also am an "experienced" faller so never get hurt.

Anyway, I was trying to find some images of non-shoe wearers walking. This video of aboriginals shows a number of different speeds, but when they walk they definitely put down their heels first. I'm not so sure about the faster paces: www.youtube.com/watch

Most of the videos I could find were dancing, which I don't think is the best representation of standard walking patterns. However, I did find one of kids playing football: www.youtube.com/watch Maybe you someone can make more of it than I could. It did seem like at times some of the kids ran on tippy toes.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

pete1108 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:21:27 GMT

I love walking/running in Nike Frees, I would recommend them to anybody. My feet and ankles feel stronger.

Check out the Vibram Five Finger shoes. They look crazy but it is probably the closest thing to walking barefoot while still protecting your feet.

www.vibramfivefingers.com

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Maid Marian — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:19:39 GMT

When you walk in high heels OF COURSE the heel touches the ground first, but the actual weight is on the ball of the foot, otherwise you would be walking around on tip toes! Looks silly.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Rogway — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:05:19 GMT

I don't know about walking like an animal, but, shoes might be OK if they have leather bottoms thus grounding you to the earth, but I guess that is history because all shoes now are synthetics thus insulating us from the earth.

See the latest info I have on autoimmune diseases and how it is believed it might have started increasing rapidly by not being in steady contact with the earth, and how it may help by re-grounding yourself to the earth.

rogway.com click on the free radical tab.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Firewalker — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:33:04 GMT

It seems peculiar to me that so many of us have feet issues....my people....Lakotas....never had bunions or foot issues until the last 100 but esp the last 50 years....as we tried to become civilized, we damaged ourselves...and our children....along with foot issues....we now have rampant FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) and autism....to me that price for being civilized is too high.

Firewalker

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Deborah.M — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:00:48 GMT

If you have to wear shoes, then I would recommend Dansko. They have been the best pair of shoes I have ever owned. They wear forever and are a dream to walk in.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

Lucas_Chohany — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:49:34 GMT

Does anyone know of a video that shows this "fox-walking"? That would be helpful.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

john.warren3 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:32:56 GMT

Interesting commentary, though Dr Mercola, IMO, gets a little wacky with the electronic stuff. By the way, I gave up inserts, and heeled shoes for running a few years ago when training for triathlons. I found www.posetech.com and www.runningbarefoot.org. Did the exercises to get my feet, ankle, and lower leg tendons and ligaments strong again, and have had no issues with knee pain at all. Now, when we shop for kids shoes (3 and 5 YO), we try to find no-heel shoes. Unfortunately, only women get to wear flats. I have not found mens dress shoes in flats. I have been wearing driving mocs, that look pretty good. By the way, I now run in Puma H-Streets.

re: Why Shoes May Not be Good For You

HappyDaze — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:14:26 GMT

I get "zapped" by static electricity when the ground is dry and I touch metal, eg. car doors. Once when opening the metal driveway gate, I was zapped so severely I thought my fingers were broken!

I got into a conversation with a man who suffered from a "back back" problem and, like me, had purchased an expensive pair of well cushioned sneakers to alleviate the back pain. Well, they worked for the back pain but we both were being zapped like crazy when shaking hands or accidentally brushing up against metal objects (a real problem when filling up the car with petrol due to potential for explosion at the service station).

Walking barefoot on damp grass really helped! When the ground is wet, no problem with static electricity.

Reminds me that as children my parents insisted that rubber soled shoes were only for short periods of time. Leather soles were the healthy way to go. Same went for clothing. Static electricity is produced from synthetics, but natural fibres are fine. Author Colleen McCulloch (who wrote "The Thorn Birds") is a well known Australian doctor and gave a short talk on how synthetic fabrics affect us....good reasons to go back to natural things.