Footwear and Obesity
By Dan Husom C.Ped., C.O.
January 21, 2009
For some time, the health crisis of growing obesity rates has caught the publics' attention. According to The Center for Disease Control, child and adult obesity has doubled since 1980.1 Despite this keen awareness, and repeated warning from media and public health institutions, the rate of obesity has leveled off, at best, and remains at a very high level.
"Without a doubt, the most popular external blame for degenerative diseases (and I will comfortably add obesity) is food or diet. A search of 'diet' Pub Med database returns a voluminous 200,000 papers!" 2 Modern electronics, including computers, television, interactive video games also lead to increasing obesity rates, as they decrease physical activity.
To suggest fast foods and junk food is the principal cause of doubling the obesity rates in children and adults, is to ignore the fact that cookies, cakes, ice cream, Twinkies and candy were widely available and consumed long before this time.
Additionally, suggesting computers, television, interactive video games etc. led to this problem is to ignore the powerful natural inclination of children and young adults to be physically active.
Dr. Simon J. Wikler's book in 1953 Take Your Shoes Off and Walk illustrated convincingly, some children displaying multiple physical symptoms and load avoidance were made well by simply allowing them to play barefoot! In Podiatry Today, March 1999, Dr. William A. Rossi, DPM identified eight features (flaws) in footwear that negatively affects human function.
The modern athletic shoe came into common everyday use in the 1980's. It retained all or most of the negative features of previous designs, with the added and perhaps the most egregious negative feature, thick, soft, sensory depriving, soling and midsoling. Some of the lethargy apparent in overweight children may be a symptom of footwear, "annihilating the vital flood of tactical communication between our feet and our central nervous system." 2
As illogical as the hypothesis may seem to the casual observer, any sincere study of known physiological effects of sensory deprivation by footwear will show this to be entirely plausible.
Dr. Steven Robbins and associates of McGill University in Canada are widely known for their research in this area. In Podiatry Today, April 1998 he made this statement: "soft soled shoes impair stability in the young and the elderly more than any single factor yet discovered."
There does seem to be an increasing awareness of this problem. Here are a few quotes from a variety of practitioners and writers:
Dave Liow commenting on modern athletic shoes: "My colleague Phil Beach osteopath and acupuncturist calls shoes 'sensory deprivation chambers,' He believes modern footwear is playing havoc with our bodies. I absolutely agree with him." 3
Dr. Francioni "The modern athletic shoe, long thought of as a protective device, should be reclassified as a health hazard!" 4
"Current research has been conducted showing plantar (bottom of the foot) sensory feedback plays a central role in safe and effective locomotion." 5
Much of the information I have found while researching sensory deprivation and other footwear problems, suggest links to a wide variety of health and orthopedic problems. I understand wearing sensory depriving footwear such as modern athletic walking or work shoes with thick and soft soling is accepted as normal, and in common opinion, helpful. However, enough information exists to the contrary that we need to dig deeper.
It is my hope that curiosity and awareness might induce some very smart researcher to undertake further study. In any event "a change of footwear and footwear habits could actually provide the path of least resistance to health for many people in the U.S., especially children" 2
- http://www.cdc.gov/PDF/Facts_About_Obesity_in_the_United_States.pdf
- Natures Magic Bullet http://www.shoebusters.com/thesis.html
- Competitive Edge Fitness Smarten Up Your Feet. http://www.cef.co.n2/articles/feethtm.
- Athletic Footwear and Running Injuries: August 2006. http://www.quickwoods.com/my-weblog2006/2008
- homunculusgroup.sqarespace.com Dr. Sharon Allen, Dr. Ivo Waerlop, Chris Korfist. 08-17-2007
© Copyright: Dan B. Husom January 2009
