6th annual: Are shoes the cause of Alzheimer's disease?

3rd annual: Are shoes the cause of Alzheimer's disease?

TO: All Alzheimer's disease researchers, doctors, and patients.

I am a 35-year-old electrical engineer investigating the biomechanical effects of shoes on degenerative diseases--an admittedly unusual topic. Today, April 8, 2006, marks the 100th anniversary of the death of "Auguste D", who was Dr. Alois Alzheimer's first clinical case of the disease that came to bear his name. Indeed, Alzheimer's disease was so rare a century ago that doctors didn't even have a name for the condition.

Alzheimer's disease is just one example of diseases that are related to posture and specifically the use of footwear, especially since it affects women disproportionately more than men; women's footwear is more physically deforming to the feet because of higher heels, pointier toes, and smaller sizes, but any shoe might have a more deforming effect on the lighter build of a woman's body. Even that first clinical case presenting to Dr. Alzheimer in 1901 was a woman (Auguste D.), and she was born on May 16, 1850, during the last year that shoes were made completely by hand; Isaac Singer's sewing machine of 1851 made modern shoes widely available for the first time in the history of mankind. The second clinical case of what became known as Alzheimer's disease was a man, "Johann F." born about a year later on March 8, 1853. Both Auguste and Johann were among the first children growing up in the modern manufactured shoe era.

Chiropodist Dr. Simon J. Wikler pioneered efforts to understand the influences of shoes in the 1950's, but his work was neglected during the subsequent drug- and diet-based approaches to medicine. However, the prolific footwear historian and podiatrist Dr. William A. Rossi clearly demonstrated throughout his publications that shoes influence the posture of the human body. Therefore, using the posture-based approaches to medicine of the distinguished orthopedist Dr. Joel E. Goldthwait, I have expanded Dr. Wikler's insightful work to include a variety of illnesses and conditions whose causes remain unknown. You may find my thesis regarding shoes and disease on the Internet at:

http://www.shoebusters.com

Thank you very much for considering my novel theory.

James Semmel
Albuquerque, New Mexico


Also reference the discussion at the Alzheimer's Association:
http://alzheimers.infopop.cc/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/214102241/m/5971053221

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I haven't reached the part about Alzheimer yet, but it's very interesting on its own. I never thought about footware that much. I recently bought myself an ergonomic ball to sit on instead of a chair, and I don't think I ever want to trade it for a chair again. Equally, walking around on bare feet in summer feels like heaven.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Didn't we go over all this before? I'm highly doubtful about any connection between Alzheimer's and shoes. Since you will have a hard time finding anyone that doesn't wear shoes at least some time in their life, this is extremely difficult to prove. Of course, some woman's shoes are bad for their feet, but modern sneakers are well designed with the user's health in mind, and rigorously tested.

There are, however, diseases and parasites associated with not wearing shoes, and the danger of injury.

Besides protection from damage, the only difference to the body from shoes is the angle of heel/toe offset, some friction, heat, sweating, maybe increased presence of bacteria.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

You forget the positioning of the toes. Do sneakers accomodate for that also? I think some valid points are raised on his website. He actually convinced me that shoes are no good at all (I didn't see anything about alzheimer in his discours however ... must have missed out a part, I'm a bit tired). It's way too easy to blame almost all diseases on shoes, and it is a pitty he has done so. It tends to obscure the real fact that wearing shoes is simply unhealthy in general. Like many Western habits, it causes many discomforts to the body ... but to what extent? More research on this would be very welcome.

 

Shoes are healthy, their use promotes healthy exercise. People that don't wear shoes develop thick calluses on the sole, which cracks and can get infected. Parasites often enter through the feet. Even native Americans used moccasins and mukluks.

Granted, old style leather shoes were very uncomfortable and confining, but most shoes today hardly need breaking in.

 

Why do you think this? It's a lie. Even without any references*, one can deduce that this cannot be true, since it would mean that our feet have evolved very poorly. But it is a fact that for most of our past, we walked BARE FEET around. In any case, it is the way it is supposed to be. When some of them migrated towards colder climate zones, they used skins and straw to keep their feet warm (as testified by ötzi). Obviously, such "shoes" don't have the impact on the positioning of your toes (squashing them together), nor on the sole of your foot. The shoes you mention cause deformation, yes, also sneakers (ever had puma's? there really smash your toes together in an attempt to make them into mashed potatoes). Are you perhaps in the shoe business?

I thought I'd add a few pictures (taken from www.shoebuster.com) since I suspect most people won't take the trouble to visit the website, since the (unfortunate) attempt of the topic to link Alzheimer with industrial footware.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Begin by considering for a moment what may be the farthest thing from your mind, both literally and figuratively: your feet and your toes. Most people, including doctors, have never seen a natural foot, unaltered by footwear. The following images of habitually bare feet are taken from a study performed almost 100 years ago, published 1905 in the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery, which examined the feet of native barefoot populations in the Philippines and Central Africa. (2)

A line can be drawn that runs through the heel, ball, and big toe of a habitually bare foot. The little toes spread naturally and fan out to provide a wide, stable base for walking or standing. How do our shod feet compare? The following more common image, also taken from the 1905 study, demonstrates feet that are shaped like the owner's shoes. No such line can be drawn, and the little toes crowd to a point—a comparatively unstable, narrow base for walking or standing.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Actually, it does not take very long for shoes to deform feet and posture. For most of us, the deformation process was painlessly well under way even before our very earliest memories as an infant. The following picture, taken from the 1905 study of barefoot populations, compares the pristine foot of a Bagobo adult (unshod on left) to that of a twelve-year-old Bagobo boy (shod on right), who has worn shoes for only a few months. (2)

Note the natural spread of the adult's toes and straight axis of the big toe, producing a foot that would be unable to comfortably fit into modern shoes, which are made only for pre-deformed feet. Compare the loss of toe spacing and deformity of the first and fifth toes in the shoe-wearing boy, where no line can connect the big toe joints with the ball and heel. Since the foot of a twelve-year-old can be so easily and readily deformed, it seems that extraordinary care must be taken to prevent foot deformation for the plastic foot of an infant in our modern shod times, beginning right at birth.

*I've been twice to India, and saw many people walk on bare feet. They all seemed to do fine. No cracks or infections whatsoever. Here some relevant references:

"From infancy on, most of the hundreds of millions of shoeless people of the world habitually stand and walk not on soft, yielding turf (a persistent myth among medical practitioners) but mostly on unyielding ground surfaces. Most shoeless children are raised in such environments in cities like Bombay, Manila, Mexico City, Calcutta, Jakarta, Bogota, etc. where the streets are either cobble-stoned or paved or with hard-packed turf. Those uncovered, 'unsupported' feet grow with strong, normal arches."

"A century ago, the rickshaw, which originated in Japan, was the common means of transportation in many Asian cities. In 1910, some 18,000 rickshaws and 27,000 rickshaw men were registered in Shanghai alone. The rickshaw men, most of whom began their occupations in their late teens, averaged 20-25 miles daily, trotting barefoot, mostly on cobbled or paved streets and roads. Many stayed at this occupation for 40 or 50 years. The feet and arches of almost all were healthy and exceptionally strong. In the same context are the tens of thousands of workers who daily load and unload ships while working barefoot on the docks of such coastal cities as Singapore, Jakarta, Bombay, etc. They carry back loads as heavy as 50 and 60 pounds on their shoulders, walking barefoot on the thick planks. And rarely a foot or arch complaint." ( Rossi, William A. "Children's Footwear: Launching Site for Adult Foot Ills", October 2002, Podiatry Management ; http://www.nwfootankle.com/FtHealth/rossi.html )

 

I believe long distance running is the officially recognized "national sport" of Ethiopia. More than 90% of the practitioners run bare foot. Some Ethiopians even win races in US and Brazil running bare foot on paved streets. A few years ago, here in Brazil, a shod runner complained that was unfair as his shoes, even though very light weight, were a handicap and the Ethiopian should be made to wear shoes too.

On New Year Day in Sao Paulo, there is a reasonably important "half marathon." Ethiopians have won it several times, but for last two years a Brazilian has won. The "serious runners" are given numbers and front positions. Typically there are at least 500 of them from many countries. Behind them are about 10,000 "fun runners," some in strange costumes, some with signs promoting their cause, etc.

The women start about one hour later and the best must work their way thru the trailing "fun runners" who actually intend to finish the race. Fortunately, for these serious women, most "fun runners" drop out in the first half hour and are home watching the start of of the women's race.

The streets are closed for at least 8 hours and at least a million people watch all of the race on TV, or standing on the sidewalk, handing out cool water, etc. (Often poured over heads instead of drunk, on hot days - New years is summer time here.) They pass only a few blocks from my house and I usally watch the start and then know when to go out to the street for 10 minutes or so. I normally have no interest in "spectator sports" but this race is great fun. One year, I even started running a few weeks in advance in a local park but decided not to run. The press/TV make a big deal about us old guys who actually finish the race, even if hours behind the winning woman.

PS - Despite the damage shoes have done to my feet, I planned to wear them if I ran in the race. I am like the Japanese. When I enter the house they come off, but I am too old to correct the deformed shape of my feet this way.

 

Thanks for everyone's replies and comments about the health benefits of natural, barefoot walking; but so far there's been no discussion about my original question, "Is footwear the cause of Alzheimer's disease?"

Let's approach the problem from a different angle. It's often said that Alzheimer's disease robs a person of the essence of their humanity. Well, what is this "essence" of humanity?

Other creatures certainly have muscles and bones; they have stomachs, hearts, lungs, and intestines; and they even have eyes, ears, a nose, and a brain. But no other creature has our unique, balancing foot.

Indeed, the feet define our abilities as humans--allowing us to walk with a striding gait, permitting our hands to perform complex tasks, and freeing up our brain to think. The shoe distorts this "essence" of our humanity, forcing the remainder of the body--including the brain--to compensate; the loss of function in the feet thus leaves the brain less capable of non-vital processes such as learning and memorizing.

Note that as footwear became more deforming during the last quarter-century, America's high-school dropout rate increased accordingly; this is an early indicator of future increases in Alzheimer's disease.

James Semmel
Albuquerque, New Mexico

 

Has anyone taken the time to read and carefully consider my thesis about shoes causing Alzheimer's disease?

James Semmel

 

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

A line can be drawn that runs through the heel, ball, and big toe of a habitually bare foot. The little toes spread naturally and fan out to provide a wide, stable base for walking or standing. How do our shod feet compare? The following more common image, also taken from the 1905 study, demonstrates feet that are shaped like the owner's shoes. No such line can be drawn, and the little toes crowd to a point—a comparatively unstable, narrow base for walking or standing.[/I]

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

)[/QUOTE]

The line depicted on the shod foot is at the wrong angle. If you placed the same angle line on the unshod foot you'd have similar results.

 

Note that the shod foot, pictured at right with the crooked big toe and curled pinky toe, is of a 12-year-old boy who wore shoes for only a few months. Most crippling of the feet thus takes place during the first couple of years, at a time when the growing infant's feet are literally plastic and so shapeable. Foot binding during infancy is the only way to get the adult feet to fit into modern shoes, which are machine-made for pre-deformed feet.

This is a good point to mention a famous observation concerning multiple sclerosis (MS). There appears to be an important threshold age of about 15 years associated with the autoimmune condition, which affects women more often than men, who tend to wear flatter-heeled shoes, and those in colder climates more than those in warmer climates, where less-deforming footwear is worn less often. A person who grows up in the tropics during the first 15 years of their life retains the lower MS risk after moving to northern latitude. Yet a person who grows up in the north, and moves to a southern country after the age of 15, still has a higher risk of developing MS. The MS threshold thus demonstrates that the footwear habits during the formative years are extremely significant; indeed, they seem to be a fundamental determinant of health during the adult years. (I suspect that a similar climatic study could be done for other degenerative conditions with an unknown cause, including Alzheimer's disease.)

James Semmel
Albuquerque, New Mexico

 

I'm not too familiar with Alzheimer's, but I am currently wearing plastic soles in my shoes which I purchased online. These soles are shaped in a way that stimulate nerves in my feet which in turn stimulates my pituitary gland (located in the brain) to start producing growth hormones again. My point pertaining to this topic is that I don't find it at all farfetched that the deformation of our feet could have a negative effect on our brain.

 

There is this whole Eastern science about acupuncture and special spots on the hands and feet. Mess with those, and the whole body gets either better, or worse.

From my own experience, I know that wearing different kind of shoes affects my mood. So if constantly something disturbs me mentally, and I constantly have to make an effort to make up for those bad effects, surely this will put a strain on my brain, which may eventually factor in my general mental wellbeing.

So I don't think it is all that farfetched to make a connection between footwear and degenerative diseases. However, that this be the exclusive connection, that I think is farfetched.

 

Indeed.

We have evolved into a very strong species. Simply look around and see what people eat, how they live and how much care they take of their body. It's a wonder they're still functioning and getting up in the morning. The quality of life has never been as low as now. You think you have luxury going to the supermarket, having tons of food and choices, when in fact that's just quantity and no quality. Any genetic "weakness" which would have caused some minor discomfort in the past, is no greatly triggered and enlarged biochemically by food, pollution, stress and ... why not the shoes. But, if you truly take a systemic approach to the human body, then you will find that in fact, every cell contains the whole of it, not just the foot. Or there's what they call "the little man in the ear" - a system equal to that of the foot. Probably the bigger the sub-system representing the whole, the more impact it has. I know I feel happier when the sun shines outside, and walk bare feat in the garden instead of wearing smelly heavy shoes making me trip over (I used to trip over all the time when I was little - them damn shoes!).
It's also known that the guts (the long intestines) are very much linked to the brain through all kinds of processes. Yet, most doctors don't appreciate this systemic view, let alone that they will realise that the health of the foot could possibly have an impact on the brain functioning.

 

I've long gone barefoot to every extent practical, and have been in wonder of the West's refusal to study the effects of wearing constricting footwear. My regret is that I did not often have a choice as a child to dispense with such rubbish.

I recommend all who hold good health in high esteem to seriously consider the thesis and arguments put forth by Dr Semmel.

 

Hi everyone,

The purpose of this yearly post is to stimulate interest and discussion about the biomechanical effects of shoes on "age-related" degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. Chiropodist Dr. Simon J. Wikler pioneered efforts to understand the influences of shoes in the 1950's, but his work was neglected during the subsequent drug- and diet-based approaches to medicine. However, the prolific footwear historian and podiatrist Dr. William A. Rossi clearly demonstrated throughout his publications that shoes influence the posture of the human body. Therefore, using the posture-based approaches to medicine of the distinguished orthopedist Dr. Joel E. Goldthwait, I have expanded Dr. Wikler's insightful work to include a variety of illnesses and conditions whose causes remain unknown.

Alzheimer's disease is just one example of diseases that are related to the use of footwear, especially since it affects women disproportionately more than men. Women's footwear is more physically deforming to the feet because of higher heels, pointier toes, and smaller sizes, but any shoe might have a more deforming effect on the lighter build of a woman's body. Even the first clinical case, presenting to Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1901, was a woman called "Auguste D." who was born on May 16, 1850, during the last year that shoes were made completely by hand. The second clinical case of what became known as Alzheimer's disease was a man, "Johann F." born about a year later on March 8, 1853. Auguste and Johann were among the first children growing up in the manufactured shoe era following Issac Singer's 1851 sewing machine, which made modern shoes widely available for the first time in the history of mankind.

You may find my thesis regarding shoes and disease on the Internet at: http://www.shoebusters.com
Thank you very much for considering my novel approach.

James Semmel
Albuquerque, New Mexico


previous years' threads:
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?p=1705018
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?p=1260454
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=53967

 

Has your site generated any interest in research, or are you still presenting your guesswork without any supporting evidence?

 

If one thinks a theory is rubbish, should one trust his or her heart? If they do, then what then?

 

I would if there were any research to support it. The exercise that shoes enable has health benefits that would be dangerous to ignore.