TO: All vision researchers, doctors, and patients.

I am a 35-year-old electrical engineer investigating the biomechanical
effects of shoes on degenerative diseases.  Each year I post about this
admittedly unusual connection, but thus far nobody has taken it
seriously.

Vision problems are just examples of conditions that 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.

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

My outlined treatment involves removing the cause, but resorting to
wide-toed, soft-soled moccasins; regularly applying a contrast bath, or
more descriptively, an alternate cold-hot footbath, to maintain
flexibility in the feet; rehabilitation of the abdominal muscles, via
forced exhalation, to balance the feet; and getting plenty of rest.

Thank you very much for considering my novel approach.

James Semmel
Albuquerque, NM