4th annual: Are shoes the cause of Alzheimer's disease?

There are some promising trends in analysis of the self in the Human Sciences, anthropology and phenomenology. William James is cool; Skinner is too hot.
Auto-archaeology is where its at.

 

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Bells,

Distorting the feet surely led to a variety of issues. However, only a very small fraction of the Chinese women ever experienced foot binding, whereas now the entire American population, men and women alike, binds their feet from birth, providing a sample size that is orders of magnitude larger. Moreover, those bound feet of the Chinese women were not used for labor as our crippled feet are today.

Anyway, you don't need to look that far back. Just objectively examine the badly deformed feet of any Alzheimer's disease sufferer, and you will immediately see the problem.

Unfortunately, not even the doctors are aware that their toes are crooked, and a twisted foot is unconsciously accepted as normal now!

james

 

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Has any objective study been done, or it is just your speculation?

 

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this should be an easy problem to solve. Let's compair modern skeletal feet with the skeletal remains of people from non-western civilizations, and see how 'twisted' our feet are in comparison.

Honestly, my initial reaction is this: I don't like shoes, but they have advantages. They also have some disadvantages, and I go barefoot often. However, I am inclined to believe that you are making some rather large assumptions without providing evidence.

Can you, before telling me that my twisted feet are the cause of all that ails me, show me that my feet are in fact twisted?

 

To answer both spidergoat and river-wind's questions:

You don't need to compare skeletal remains; we merely need to look in the literature. It turns out that about 100 years ago, somebody actually examined the feet of living, barefooted people in Africa and even took photographs that leave no doubt as to the effect of shoes. (See Hoffman, Phil. "Conclusions drawn from a comparative study of the feet of barefooted and shoe-wearing peoples", October 1905, Volume 3, Number 2, The American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery. Pictures on the website http://www.shoebusters.com)

It is fortunate that such a study was performed before shoes soon spoil all natural feet on our planet.

James Semmel
Albuquerque, New Mexico

 

That one study was in 1905!

Cultures that don't even wear shoes are probably hunter gatherers, which is a healthy lifestyle marked by plentiful exercise and natural foods. I admit there is probably a correlation between many diseases and modern life, but to narrow the explanation to footwear is absurd.

 

I have to agree with Spidergoat.

There are photos on the site comparing a shoe-waring individual to a non-shoe wearing person, and the shoes the woman wears in the photo are certainly uncomfortable looking, and her feet do appear to conform to the shape of the shoe, even when they are off. (Luckily, my sneakers don't at all resemble that's woman's shoes; they allow my feet a much more natural shape than that particular design allows.)

HOWEVER. The drastic difference between the individual's feet in those *four* photos could be due to a number of different reasons. From this one instance, jumping to the conclusion that the major difference is shoes would be easy; but that's where the danger lies. Easy asummptions are often wrong.

Please do a follow-up study to teh 1905 study which shows that people across cultures and genetic populations have a quantifiable coorelation between the shoes they wear and thier foot shape.
This would most likely come in the form of % difference in distance from the centerline of the foot to each edge (left and right) at at least 4 point along the verticle centerline.
Such a study would be able to show not only that shoes appear to twist the foot, but that such twisting was not due to other cultural or regional factors, such as methods of walking/dancing, work habits, parasites, or other.


Then we can start discussing the illnesses such twisting can cause in the human body with confidence.

Note that I am not saying that you are wrong! I am saying that you do not have a level of evidence needed to discuss this on a scientific level.

 

spidergoat and river-wind:

You would also need to consider the various postural deformities that accompany feet crippled by shoes. Actually, such a whole-body approach reveals a precise method for reversing the damage.

james

 

I know how much you guys dig some dodgy stats so here it goes:

1/68 incidence of Alzheimers in: China, Turkey, Mongolia, Brazil, USA, UK and - Japan.

The figures were so accurate that I wondered if the compiler had just taken the population of each country and calculated 1/68 of each.

Anyway no evidence of footbinding problems there.

 

There is no difference to the body between wearing shoes and standing on a soft surface like a field of grass. Would you rather pad the ground, or pad your feet? Could there be adverse health effects from walking constantly in bare feet on a padded surface? The only possible differences are that the foot is covered by a material. Apart from moisture and fungus, there are no possible adverse health effects from wearing shoes. Perhaps formal leather shoes and woman's fashion heels are bad for posture, but most modern shoes are well-designed and padded.

On the other hand, there are many diseases that are transmitted through the ground, including infectious diseases and parasites.

 

I have heard that if garlic is rubbed on the sole of a persons foot they will smell of garlic....could there be something in the shoes themselves that is absorbed into the body then causing Alzheimers?

 

Maybe it's the socks.