Hi everyone,

Given the responses it kicked off last year here in the newsgroups, I
would like to annually address the biomechanical effects of shoes on
human degenerative diseases.  Most people still think the idea stinks.
Yet it seems to me that shoes on the feet are like germs on the hands.

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, coupled with 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 cause remains
unknown.

Vision problems are just examples of conditions that seem to result
from the habitual use of shoes, particularly during the formative,
childhood years.  It really makes no sense for humans to have four
relatively sharp senses of hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling, but
an extremely poor-quality fifth one of vision.  Indeed, the
distinguishing factor is that none of the other senses share the
fantastic muscular control necessary for proper organic functioning.
The eye is thus directly subject to unnatural postural strain with
imbalanced feet.  After walking around in shoes for several years--and
it does not take very long at all--the multiple, tiny muscles of a
person's eyes have been subjected to tremendous postural stress.
Faulty body mechanics seems to be responsible for myopia, hyperopia,
astigmatism, presbyopia, strabismus, amblyopia, or other degenerate
conditions, but shoes apparently also influence internal diseases such
as cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and others.

You may find my thesis on shoes and disease at
http://www.shoebusters.com on the Internet.  My outlined treatment
involves removing the cause; regularly applying a contrast bath--or
more descriptively, an alternate cold-hot footbath--to maintain
flexibility in the feet; barefoot walking to maintain strength in the
feet, resorting to wide-toed, soft-soled moccasins if necessary; and
getting plenty of rest.

Depending on age, footwear habits, and daily demands, a 20-minute daily
walk, supplemented by a 20-minute contrast footbath every third or
fourth day (about twice a week), could actually be sufficient to
control or prevent many common conditions, but the regimen should be
used as the foundation for any other therapy, which may provide further
relief of symptoms if necessary.

Thank you very much for any questions, discussion, or feetback.
the barefoot loafer,
  James Semmel