Let Your Feet Talk to Your Brain
Can going barefoot and zero-drop, minimalist shoes lessen age-related falls?
My husband Andrea and I were over at a friend’s house for dinner and it was a pleasure to see his near 90-year-old mom there as well. I enjoy seeing her, she’s a true inspiration on how to age. She is very socially active, loves to go dancing, a wiz on her phone, very health conscious, relatively fit and trim, and fiercely independent (although she splits her time between living with her son and staying in her home, which is great). During the appetizer conversation, she casually mentioned she hates going barefoot. I can’t even remember now how it came up in the discussion, but my ears perked as I’ve been strolling down the barefoot path.
Some of you may recall reading about my inclination to go barefoot around the house. It started a while back when I noticed that my feet were very tender when I got out of bed. They literally hurt. I had to walk very gingerly, I felt like an old lady. Knowing that there are 26 bones and 33 joints in the foot, it occurred to me that better movement might be possible if the synovial fluid (nature’s natural lubricant) was able to flow into those stiffened joints better than it was. So I decided to forego my cozy wool, cushy slippers right out of bed to give my feet the opportunity to flex and stretch—and see if that would make a difference.
A multitude of benefits
After a short while, I was pleased to notice that I was in much less pain. So I started extending my barefoot time to later and later in the day, whenever I could. Then last year, during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I decided to try another shoeless experiment. I love the holidays and traditionally cook and bake up a storm, but there was a nagging problem. Despite trying several different “supportive” shoes and standing on hardwood floors, my back still fatigued and burned after long cooking and baking sessions. I needed a solution. So I kicked off my shoes as I donned my apron. Backaches banished!
It’s interesting how something so basic has such an impact. I’ve come to understand that feet are the foundation of the body—strong feet, strong body. Walking barefoot promotes foot strength, helps develop the fine motor muscles in the foot, increases ankle mobility, and leads to all-around better foot mechanics. It allows the body to rest in its natural postural alignment…which may be buried deep in our body’s memory, but it’s there. In essence, going barefoot can get our whole body synergistically working more effectively, which could solve a multitude of foot, ankle, knee, and back issues.
Have we gotten shoes all wrong?
Historically my back begins to ache after a long walk, so for years I’ve been on a perpetual hunt for the most comfortable walking shoes. I’ve long been fascinated by and pined for the wildly popular but way too expensive for my blood, Hoka shoes. The marshmallow foam soles look like heaven, but every time I went to the site I was first overwhelmed by the choices, and second, unable to justify spending that much on an unknown. Still, I see these shoes on feet everywhere and because of the popularity of this billowy sole, it is being adopted by the other mainstay brands. I’m not so sure this is a good thing.
My experience going barefoot has given me pause, and now I’ve developed a theory about these thick, ultra-comfortable soles. I believe they present three issues to be cognizant of. Number one: plastics and foams never stop curing. Andrea’s father was the VP of product development a Mattel Toys for 30 years, and during college, Andrea would sculpt toys for extra spending money. He learned a lot about toy development and manufacturing during that period, with a key takeaway: plastic materials never stop curing. That’s why plastics become brittle and break with age. Essentially, these poofy soles are in an imperceivable but constant state of change, which makes number two consequential.
Number two: depending on the body's alignment, the foot strike to the ground is not perfectly uniform and the sole will eventually mold to this uneven ground hit. If not replaced every handful of months, they will gradually amplify what is out of alignment. Now, I’m compulsively staring at everyone’s shoes to test my theory. I see overweight people literally waddling from side to side wearing the ubiquitous athletic shoe with soles that you can see are wearing unevenly, causing them to pronate or supinate—roll in or roll out—and their ankles and knees to be in unnatural alignment...which in turn affects the hips and back.
Scrutinizing people’s shoes this last year and seeing my own improvement going barefoot compelled me to look for a walking shoe in the completely opposite direction—minimalist shoes, or “zero drop” as they are also known. Zero drop because there is no toe drop and the foot stays in natural alignment. Some also have a very thin, barely no cushion sole for ground feel. I needed a new pair of walking shoes, so I decided to be brave, jump in and try a pair of Xero shoes with a razor-thin sole.
It’s been an interesting experience and there is definitely a transition period to forego the thick, cushy soles and orthotics to which we have grown accustomed. Although I had been going barefoot around the house on hardwood floors that have a surprising amount of flex and give, relative to concrete or asphalt, the first handful of walks demonstrated that I needed to adjust how hard I was striking the pavement. I also noticed I was a little sore, but in an oddly good way—like I was challenging my body and using muscles very differently. I was inspired! So, I bought a second pair of minimalist shoes—Feelgrounds—for day-to-day wear. Two pairs of shoes in, I’ve joined the barefoot shoes revolution!
Although my body is still adjusting to less cushioning, I have to say I am starting to be a true believer in the many benefits of minimalist shoes. I’ve noticed when I’m out and about during the day, my leg muscles feel activated. I actually feel more energized. My mind is more connected to what I’m doing and my surroundings. I’m keenly aware of the surface I’m walking on. This brings me to the third issue of walking on clouds.
Number three
In her book, Move Your DNA, Katy Bowman lays out a compelling case for moving and loading the body very differently from what we have become accustomed to. One premise in particular has been a true epiphany for me. Essentially, the bottoms of our feet (which have more nerve endings than any other part of the body) send signals to the brain, which in turn communicates to our adjustment system and tells our bodies what to do. Our feet are telling our brain what sort of environment we are encountering, so that the body can react accordingly. If it’s a flat smooth, surface, our bodies will respond one way. If we are walking on uneven ground strewn with rocks and obstacles, our body should respond completely differently.
But what if our feet are stiff and inflexible from eons of being largely immobile and the soles of our shoes are so rigid and thick that our feet are constantly signaling to the brain that we are on a perpetually flat surface? The image below demonstrates this. Imagine that you are walking on a very rocky surface, yet because you are wearing a stiff shoe with a thick sole, the bottom of your foot is unbending and can’t feel the rocks—the image on the top. That’s the surface your brain sees. However, if your foot was flexing and sensing the true nature of the surface, the brain would see the picture on the bottom—the accurate condition.
This was such a lightbulb realization that it got me thinking that perhaps we’ve gotten it all wrong with the shoes we wear, especially as we age. What if, in our quest for extreme comfort, we have not only prematurely de-conditioned our musculoskeletal system, but also numbed our brains as well? What if our brains were to receive accurate input about the surface we are encountering every moment of the day? Not only would it keep the pathways to the brain pliable and receptive, but could it make a difference in lessening the dreaded falls associated with aging.
Foot brain connection
And this brings me full circle to our friend’s mom. As I mentioned, she is very ambulant for an almost 90-year-old woman. So I was very surprised to hear—given her level of fitness— she had fallen a couple of times in her backyard. But then when she said she hates going barefoot, it got me wondering if her thick-soled athletic shoes and decades of her feet being de-conditioned have contributed to a disconnect between the environment and her body's reaction.
Statistically, one in four adults (28%) over the age of 65 report falling each year. That’s 36 million falls, resulting in 3 million trips to the emergency room and 32,000 deaths per year. Topping this off, a whopping 95% of hip fractures are caused by falling. HOLY COW!
Granted, there are many steps we can take to mitigate this risk, not the least of which is building strong muscles, incorporating balance and flexibility exercises, and playing a racquet sport that increases reaction time. Although I don’t see this on “experts” lists of preventative measures to take—yet—, is it possible that another piece of this puzzle is correcting the erroneous signals that our inflexible, unvarying feet send to the brain, causing it to interpret the environment incorrectly?
I’m just asking questions, but I believe it very well could.
It’s never too late to strengthen your feet and open the pathways to the brain. Step over those slippers and give going barefoot a shot.
As a side note, Andrea was just speaking with a lovely woman about a short vacation she took that was marred by a fall that hurt her ankle. She brushed it off as “these things happen to old ladies.” He asked her how old she was. 60. Ohhhhhhh, noooooo! I’m a month away from 62 and I don’t accept that as my future. Not. At. All. I’m lacing up my Xero shoes and going for a 5 miler. See you next week!
If you’d like more information on barefoot and minimalist shoes, Anya’s Reviews is a great resource. In particular, this article on easy swaps may inspire you.
Piedi scalzi... Piedi forte... Piedi contenti!