By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Have you ever experienced working all day with your shoes and at the end of the day, the first thing you want do when you reach home is to remove your shoes? And, AAHHH! What relief! I’ve seen children, too, who would remove their shoes once they reach the doorsteps. Aside, of course, from the fact that our floors (and cleaners) would be very happy when we leave our footwear outside the door, our feet are much more happy to be free.
Our two feet are highly complex ( I would say, hi tech) biomechanical structures which is made up of (for each foot) more than 26 bones, 100 tendons, ligaments and muscles and 33 joints and supplied with blood vessels and nerves. “Tendon” is the technical term of the specialized tissue that connects the muscles to the bones and “ligament” is the term for that tissue that connects bones to bones. When I say “feet”, I refer to the distal part of our legs. Our feet contain about 200,000 nerve endings, making it one of the highest-innervated parts of our body just like our hands and head. So if you noticed, a bruise in the toe is more painful than a bruise in the thigh. Once I dropped a boulder (rather, a big stone) right on my little toe and I almost fainted because of the pain. These nerves are the built-in wiring system that connects our feet to the spinal cord and the brain. They are like electric wires but instead of being visible they are carefully buried inside our skin and muscles. Imagine if these were installed like the electric wires in Metro Manila or Baguio City. Our Creator certainly is the greatest artist cum engineer.
As a review of your health subject, what are the functions of our feet? We have feet primarily to provide balance, to assist our body in mobility like walking, running, climbing, swimming and to bear our weight. So before you gorge food and sweet drinks, think of the effect of excess weight on your poor feet.
Look at the soles of your feet and you will see that they are arched in the middle. These make walking easier and less taxing to the body thus flat footed individuals may have difficulty winning the walkathon or marathon or akyathon. For readers whose legs are rendered less flexible by arthritis and thus can’t see the soles of their feet, you can just study your hand to understand more what I am writing about. Foot structure is similar to the hand but because it bears weight of the body, it is built stronger and less mobile.
Let us discuss some more the fascinating workings of our feet. Function of any part of our body depends on the integrity of the nerve network or the electrical system of our body which includes the brain and spinal cord. The nerves in our legs all emanate from our spinal cord. At the bottom of the spinal cord near our anus, the nerves split into two identical branches- one branch to the right hip down and splitting into many fibers to cover all parts of the right limb including the right foot and the other one going to the left hip down to the left foot. Says Tim Taylor, an anatomy and physiology instructor, “The nerves of the foot help move the body and keep balance both while it’s moving and at rest. All of these nerves extend as branches of nerves in the leg that pass through the ankle and into the foot.” There are specialized nerves which are responsible for feeling on the outside of the foot and the small toe which work together with other specialized nerves that “command the many small muscles of the feet and toes to create the constant, subtle shifting of the feet that keeps us from falling down. At the same time, these nerves deliver messages to the brain that bring information about the angles and position of joints, the length and tension of muscles, or even the speed of movements so that through the interaction of the nervous system with the muscles of the lower extremities, balance may be maintained.” Whew, complicated mechanisms! They occur so quickly, most of which are a reflex or “automatic” that we oftentimes take them for granted. Imagine the immediate grasping action of your toes to keep you from falling, of course, coupled with stretching your hand when you suddenly come upon a cliff. This action is the result of an intricate vibrant network of muscles, nerves, bones, blood and energy.
So how do we keep our feet vibrant and happy?
First, we start at the foundation. Look at the feet of a baby and that of an adult and they are not the same. Our feet, just like the rest of our body start its development in the womb, during conception and pregnancy (but of course, genes from both mother and father also play important roles so mother and father have to be healthy). Again, just like the rest of our body, our feet need the proper building blocks to develop properly. From whence do these building blocks come from? From food and drink and air.
Next, let us look at foot development after birth. We are all born barefoot and our forefathers have stayed barefoot all throughout their lifetime. Now, even babies who don’t walk have shoes. Caregivers, be careful. Babies and toddlers’ feet are soft and pliable as the bones are not completely formed. Remember the more than 26 bones and 33 joints we mentioned above. These can be more easily deformed by abnormal pressure, however subtlely, by too tight shoes or socks or ill-fitted shoes, than feet of older children or adults. Many young children seem flat footed as foot arches will stabilize by age 6 or 7 years.
Babies and toddlers don’t need shoes. Why do we use shoes, by the way? For fashion? Letting the young child go barefoot will help their feet grow normally and encourage them to develop a grasping action which is important for balance. Balance is important to prevent falls or tripping thus preventing injury. Normal feet development impacts on the functions of the feet we listed earlier. Going barefoot will also allow the feet to breathe and thus prevent infection (and its attendant odor).
Going barefoot also allows the child to develop a natural gait or walking pattern and good posture. Feet experts say that a natural walk has a mid-foot strike rather than a heel strike. Watch a baby learning to walk and see this pattern. Heel strike is seen in people accustomed to cushioned shoes and this would have repercussions on the joints above the foot particularly the knees and hips. And we all know that a painful knee doesn’t just affect the knee but our whole being. Now, do we need to say more about young children wearing heeled shoes? Let us leave those heels to short adults like me (wink).
Going barefoot or minimal footwear that allow barefoot movement strengthens the muscles of the feet and legs by requiring balance and stabilizing movement. These reduce risk of injury.
Walking barefoot on the ground allows our body to have direct contact with the earth- called “grounding” or “earthing”. The earth has a limitless supply of healthy energies that our barefeet absorb to energize and heal our body. Eastern medical science has discovered that in the soles of our feet (like in our palms) are acu points which correspond to all internal organs of our body and these points are naturally massaged by going barefoot. Massaging these areas tonify, balance and heal. Our indigenous culture further enhances this “barefoot medicine” with the practice of “dagdagay” or “kolkol-is”.
Fortunate is the farmer who goes barefoot in the “payeo”. How about office workers? Don’t worry, it is not an all or none thing. If dress code does not allow barefeet in office, we can still go barefoot outside- in the park, in St. Joe’s lawn, in the garden. Just be alert for the dog poo and ag-agoban. Happy feet make a happy person. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!**
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who proclaim good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.”Isaiah 52:7
