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

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