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Title: Your Shoes Are Killing Your Feet
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Published: Apr 27, 2008
Author: wired
Post Date: 2008-04-27 11:58:54 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 158
Comments: 4
Your Shoes Are Killing Your Feet By Dylan Tweney EmailApril 23, 2008 | 6:53:28 PMCategories: Body, Health, Sports Foot Your shoes are destroying your feet. More specifically, they're messing up the perfectly-balanced, coordinated bipedal gait that our species evolved over millions of years. That's the argument touted by a lengthy article in New York magazine this week, You Walk Wrong. Its starting point is a number of podiatric studies showing that going barefoot is better for your feet than wearing shoes: unshod Zulus have healthier feet than shoe-wearing Europeans, and prehistoric humans appear to have had the healthiest feet of all. And if you must wear shoes, it turns out that the less shoe you wear, the better, because expensive running shoes are no better than cheap ones, and wearing expensive running shoes actually increases your odds of getting injured by 123%. But first, New York wants you to know all about Galahad Clark, the scion of a British shoe-manufacturing family, who got into the un-shoe business after hanging out with the Wu-Tang Clan, Rem Koolhaas, and a young tennis-playing industrial designer named Tim Brennan. Eventually Clark came up with the Vivo Barefoot, a $160 un-shoe that is as close to going barefoot as you can get while still providing some protection against the dog shit, hypodermic needles and broken glass that clog the streets of New York (and San Francisco, for that matter). The authors of the "shod vs. unshod" study (.pdf), Bernard Zipfel and Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, argue that going barefoot is the optimal condition for humans. It makes a certain intuitive sense, because the human foot evolved over millennia in the absence of shoes, during which time humans walked just fine, thank you very much. Modern shoes significantly change the way the foot works: Their stiffness prevents the foot from flexing as it normally would, and their big, cushioned heels absorb so much shock that they actually encourage you to drive your heel into the ground much more firmly than you would if you were barefoot. A barefoot walking or running gait is much gentler and smoother, in which your foot placement is flatter (rather than heel-first) and the arches of your feet deflect more to absorb the load. And it turns out that this might be better for your knees as well as your feet, because even though those thick soles are absorbing the immediate shock to your foot, your steps while wearing shoes still transmit more shock to your knees than your barefoot steps do. In light of this, it should come as no surprise that there are many advocates of the barefoot lifestyle and barefoot running on the internet, and there's even a barefoot marathon-running Christian minister. There are a couple of problems with the "let's just kick off our shoes" line: People have been wearing shoes for 30,000 years, and prehistoric humans tended to get killed off by disease, starvation or predators at a much younger age, meaning they had a lot less time to wreck their feet through ordinary use. And there are a lot of places where you really don't want to go barefoot, or even really wear a thin un-shoe: Like in the snow, or at work, or when trying to hail a cab. Still, I'm predisposed to like the anti-shoe argument, because I enjoy going barefoot, and, heck, it's Spring. What about you? Image: What shoes can do your feet. Source: University of the Witwatersrand
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#1. To: All (#0)
I'll note that the first thing professionals do to kidnapped people is take their shoes away cause most of us can't go a hundred yards without them.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" It makes total sense to me! How or why would the human body be designed to work better with shoes than without? I found a very nice pair of shoes here in Ecuador. Almost sandals, but a bit more to them. I looked very hard for a pair that had as flat a sole as possible. Nearly all of them had a full inch or more under the heel sloping to maybe a half inch at the toe. But I found these that are about 1/4" thick though the entire sole. They are simple but very comfortable. I can feel the ground under my feet when I walk in them and they don't make a sound. I've snuck up on people without even trying. They are comfortable and under $20 bucks here. I'm not ready to give up quality expensive shoes that fit like a glove, but these are nice. Having the right shoes is very important for your whole body. There's probably no worse shoes than lady's high heels. Those things are a crime against women, IMO.
barefoot and happy over here ;P
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
Yes. Butt what a nice wobble.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#2. To: tom007 (#0)
The authors of the "shod vs. unshod" study (.pdf), Bernard Zipfel and Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, argue that going barefoot is the optimal condition for humans. It makes a certain intuitive sense, because the human foot evolved over millennia in the absence of shoes, during which time humans walked just fine, thank you very much.
#3. To: tom007 (#0)
#4. To: Pinguinite (#2)
There's probably no worse shoes than lady's high heels. Those things are a crime against women, IMO.
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