Age Feet First
Two weeks ago, a friend of mine came down with a cold and I just happened to have a stockpile of bone broth base chicken soup in my freezer, so I bagged it up to drop off at her house. As I walked out my front door, a paramedic and fire truck with flashing lights parked in front of my house. Uh oh, something must be wrong with my elderly neighbor (I’ll call her Betty). My first reaction was surprise that she hadn’t texted or called me. My second reaction was dread…maybe there was a reason I hadn’t heard from her. Gulp.
We share a driveway, which directly opens into her backyard, and I could see the paramedics with her in the back. Soup in hand, I ventured through the gates to investigate. Turns out she had fallen and her wearable device was programmed to call for help. (Fortunately, we live in a small town and help comes very quickly.) Apparently, Betty had called out my husband's name hoping he was in our back yard, but he was in the garage. About the same time, her daughter (who lives 300 miles away) had called me, but I didn’t hear the phone. Some neighbors we are!
As luck would have it, she soft landed on her bottom and was resting against a post. After thorough questioning, the good-natured group of firemen deemed no broken bones or hospital-worthy injuries and got her to her feet. I stayed with her until they left, closing the gates, and confirming she felt all right to be left alone. With a forced smile, she nervously stated that this is how it happens: once you have a fall, it leads to the hospital, and then to death. Double gulp.
I told her it didn’t have to be that way; my mom (whom she knew well) survived a handful of falls and even the dreaded broken hip. But I also remembered my mom’s best friend who fell in her home and was on the floor for over a day before her son found her. Eleven days later she passed. I kept that to myself.
What saddened me the most that morning was the certainty with which Betty accepted and rattled off the chain of events that leads to the approximately 38,000 deaths a year due to unintentional falls. I sensed her fear and my heart sank. I know for many older people it’s the turning point that signals the end of independent living. It did for my mom. She moved in with my family after she had several falls living alone.
As I was leaving, Betty then listed all the things that led to her fall: she didn’t have her cane, she was carrying laundry, she walked down the wrong path. I saw where her logic was going…time to fall-proof the backyard or limit going out entirely.
It's understandable that was her conclusion. I’ve read dozens of articles on how to prevent falling and nearly all focus on the environment, not often the body, and certainly not the feet. In my January post, Plan Now to Avoid Falling Later, I outlined my strategy for preventing falls by maintaining physical strength and balance, and I touched on the state of our feet and shoes. But the more thought I give it and the more time I spend observing how people walk, the more I’m convinced that we need to prioritize the fitness of our feet and the flexibility of our shoes as we age. This is our foundation.
Let’s start at the very beginning
I was thinking about when our son, Alessio, was a toddler and a friend handed down a pair of moccasin-style shoes. She explained that the natural, holistic point of view was to keep children as close to barefoot as possible when they were learning to walk. Keep in mind this was 15 years ago and back then only a few small brands of these barefoot-style shoes for new walkers existed. Now, there are scads of them touting soles that flex and bend with every step to allow for a full range of motion and promote healthy growth.
I remember being new-mom-obsessed with finding the perfect shoes that struck the delicate balance of the right amount of grip so that he wasn’t slipping and sliding, and yet were “barely there” flexible to ensure ideal development. It is such a sensible approach to create a strong base and it’s ironic how far we stray as we age.
Think about it. A considerable amount of thought and energy goes into establishing a healthy base for children, yet over time people migrate to shoes with thick, cushy, rigid soles. These pillowy soles disconnect them from the ground, and their feet stop flexing and bending, losing the full range of motion …which is exactly the opposite of where we started.
When our feet feel the undulations of the ground, the nerves in the sole relay this information to our brain and our body innately knows what to do and how to compensate for these uneven surfaces. If feet don't feel the ground and automatically flex, the brain is telling the body it is on a flat surface and it can’t react in time to an uneven situation…and down we go.
In the blink of an eye
I’ve seen it happen to older folks I know. The mom of a good friend of ours was in her backyard picking avocados and fell. Twice. Betty was wearing chunky, grippy athletic shoes on an essentially flat surface when she tumbled backwards.
My mom had such a worrisome number of falls before moving in with us that as soon as she was settled, I ordered a full neurological work-up at the prestigious Keck School of Medicine’s Neurological Department. I thought for sure that there must be a brain-related reason she was losing her balance. Nope. She got a clean bill of health from the neurologists.
From then on, I’ve been fascinated with what leads to falls. If it’s not dizziness, what happens? What’s on going on here to make people lose their balance in rather innocuous situations? I believe for many it’s the ground-foot-brain-body connection. In my mom’s case, she insisted on stiff, slick, slipper-type shoes, literally sliding her feet along the floor. A recipe for disaster. I battled with her to change her shoes and pick up her feet, but as a woman in her 80’s, she was stuck in her ways and I ultimately lost that war.
Back to baby basics
The reason I am so passionate and fixated on this issue is because—as I saw in Betty’s eyes that morning—falls can mean the beginning of the end. The fear paralyzes people. Their world narrows until their lives are drastically diminished. It’s not hyperbole to say that our feet and shoes impact both our healthspan and our quality of life. My mom’s life was compromised and she became very isolated. I’m determined not to go down that path.
You may remember that I’m a barefoot fan, so I’m mostly shoeless at home or I’ve got on barefoot-style house shoes—much like Alessio’s when he was two years old. Throughout the day I stand on the balls of my feet, flex and point my toes, sit cross-legged…all sorts of movements to put my feet through a full range of motion, which in turn exercises the rest of my body as well as the brain. This is one of my priorities and I will continue walk the walk and talk the talk, so we can all live well, age great.
Want to try a pair of minimalist or transitional shoe?
Here are a few good brands to peruse:
Xero Shoes
Vivobarefoot
Feelgrounds
Flux Footwear