OK, so ill-fitting shoes, very high-heeled shoes, etc. can injure your feet by causing bunions and hammertoes to develop. That’s a generally accepted fact.
I’m flat-footed. Not too severely, but as a kid I had to have specially-made orthotics inserted into my school shoes and sports shoes, and I was told to keep away from unsupportive footwear like slip-ons, sandals etc. and not to spend too much time walking around barefoot, as my arches needed support.
But… Have a look at the medical cite page of this (admittedly perhaps biased) site.. If I take this information together with the information in a foot book I’m reading by Dr. Phillip Maffetone (podiatrist, naturopath, etc.) it seems to posit that ALL shoes cause harm to the foot and interfere with its natural muscle function, and the most healthy human feet belong to those who spend most, if not all, of their life barefoot.
For the record, I no longer wear arch supports and I wear all types of footwear, and my feet only experience discomfort after a day of high heels.
So is the “arches need outside mechanical support” theory incorrect? Is it better to force your feet to use their muscles to support the arches? Should you spend as much time as possible barefoot?
I also have very flat feet-- I still remember the doctor looking at them when I was 10 or 12 and saying, in a truly astonished tone, “damn, you’ve got really flat feet.” No one every told me anything in particular to do with them – and they’re fine. I’m barefoot or in sandals all summer, in loafers or sneaks or other flats all winter (high heels only when I’m really, really dressed up) – never had any problems with my feet. Other than that if the shoe has a high arch built in, it’s uncomfortable, because there ain’t no concave on my foot to deal with convex.
I asked the same question here on GQ a while ago. The consensus seemed to be that running barefoot will not hurt your feet, but wearing good shoes will not hurt your feet either. However, it might not be a good idea to run barefoot because of broken glass and so forth.
Primitive man had a smaller chance of stepping on broken glass and rusty nails on his way to the primitive seven eleven. If you look at the one place in the entire world that you see the most humans walking around barefoot most of the time, you end up deciding that we evolved at the beach.
Then we walked inland and began running away from lions in the jungle we invented the sandal. Once that trend started, it was only a matter of time and money to get to Birkenstocks, and Pradas. Shoes are a protective device. Concrete is hard on your feet. While it is possible to walk through the woods in bare feet, it is certainly not comfortable.
I’m not sure the OP is seriously suggesting that we all throw away all our shoes – rather, is it or is it not the case that flat feet is a serious “problem” that needs to be corrected? I know they used to disqualify people from the army for having flat feet – is that still the case?
I have flat feet, and my mother made me go to a doctor when I was a kid. His take: If you don’t care about the discomfort/pain/time limit from walking/standing on them, they’re harmless. I didn’t care at the time; I’ve been considering going back now that I’m an adult and actually have reason to stand or walk for longer periods of time.
Ancient man may not have had broken glass but he had pebbles, sharp twigs, insects, volcanic glass and animal dung to step in and, just personally, I prefer to have some level of protection against those things.
Some, usually minor discomfort associated with shoe wearing for a proportion of the populace seems like a reasonable tradeoff for the benefits they have conferred - including lack of susceptibility to trauma, hookworm infections, stepping in Labrador retriever leavings etc.
Impaling your bare foot on a downed branch from a Washington hawthorn tree is quite painful, as I can attest.
FWIW, I read somewhere that a barefoot gait is different than a ‘shoed’ gait, more heel-to-toe action in shoes vs. mainly using the balls of feet barefoot. Whether this is good or bad, I don’t know, but the same article indicated that if you have an outside-in* step (i.e., you move your left foot to the left as you are stepping and move it back toward center as you are putting it down, vice versa for right foot - noticable by the way your soles wear more in the instep than outside), barefoot running can be bad for you (in some manner I can’t remember off the top of my head).
Since this is GQ, I will try to find the article in question.
RE: flat feet - I put up with all of the corrective stuff for flat feet until I was about 10 or so, i don’t remember if I stopped cause I was cured or if my mom decided it wasn’t worth it (generally I really bitched about the uncomfortable ugly type shoes I had to get). My cousin, on the other hand, had flat feet, but they seemed to get better after walking around barefoot all summer, according to my mom (this may have been a factor in the discontinuation of my treatment as well). I don’t think I still have flat feet (they seem to be arched nicely, but I don’t tend to concentrate on feet, so they may be a little less arched than normal), but they do sometimes feel like they’re being sliced open by knife in the center of the sole if I’ve been on my feet too long.
*I don’t think this is the correct term for it, I suspect I just made it up.
I also found the orthotics to be uncomfortable after several hours of wear, because they press against the almost non-existent arch of the flat foot. Do they actually help flat feet improve in any way? Because I would say that my feet are as flat now as they were when I was 7.
Maffetone’s theories appear to amount to this: that the muscles which support the arch will get weaker the more they are supported, and that the more time one spends barefoot, the stronger those muscles will get. Which can lead you to conclude that orthotics are a complete waste of time and money and could actually hinder the arch from forming.
Or is this incorrect? I personally haven’t worked it out.
Of course if you live in the modern world you really can’t throw your shoes away - they’re necessary for social and practical reasons - but I was wondering whether it would be healthier to go barefoot when you can, or whether arch support all your waking hours is a better option, particularly if you have flat feet.
By the way, it’s nice to know that other people have flat feet that aren’t bothering them - our feet aren’t so freaky after all.
“Flat feet” are not an incurable condition. If they bother you, try lots of good foot massage wherein you (or even better, someone else) moves your metatarsals up and down in a scissor-like action. The metatarsals are those long bones in the foot itself. Starting with your right foot: grab the one under your big toe in your left hand and the second toe in your right hand and wiggle them in opposing up-down directions. They won’t move much, at first. Then grab the second metatarsal in your left hand, and the one under the middle toe (the third) in your right hand and repeat. Do the same on the left foot. Moving the metatarsals loosens the fascia and allows the muscles to draw the metatarsals up in a proper arch.
Once you’re nice and loose, dump 20 marbles on the floor and pick them up with your toes, depositing them (with your toes) into an empty coffee or large soup can. Do this with each foot, twice a day, and you’ll develop a nice arch within a month or so.
If you have kids, have them play “pick up marbles” when young, and don’t put them in shoes for as long as is practical. Their chances of having flat feet are rather small with good foot exercise. Kids also love foot massage - just go in with firm pressure so you’re not tickley.