Dr. Chester Laskoski
Foot and Ankle Care

Shoes

f

Shoes are those coverings for the feet and necessary for manmade surfaces, and your financial investment is probably more important than any other item of clothing in regards to your body's upright function.

I've heard it said that a pair of shoes will not make the feet well any more than a new hat will cure a headache. This is true because heredity and hard, manmade surfaces, activities, diseases, and imbalances all play together in your feet's function.

Rarely will a shoe prevent your foot problem, but certainly poor shoes will make it worse by aggravating the problem or deformity. For example, a bunion deformity often gets worse in a poor fitting shoe. Certain shoes, especially walking and athletic shoes, help protect by reducing friction and stress, and they absorb shock at impact. This allows for pain and injury reduction with weight sustaining activities.

Some caveats:

• Leather shoes are more expensive but superior because, unlike synthetics, they give, and they keep the feet dry. Thus they accommodate and mold to the foot structure and they help reduce perspiration, which is a prime cause of odor, infection, and athletes foot.
• Purchase your shoes at day's end, when gravity and the pooling of body fluids renders your feet larger than upon arising.
• Find a shoe store that takes your foot measurements with a Branock device, because the length of your foot has two measurements. from heal to widest portion of the shoe which is where the shoe should break. Total measurement is from the heel to the end of the toes. These measurements vary greatly in each person, depending on the length of the toes.
• Allow 1/3" - 1/2" distance on your longest toe. Make sure the shoe bends at the widest portion of your foot and that the heel does not slip.
• Always have your foot measured and test those shoes with the same type of sock or stocking which you'll be customarily wearing with them.
• Allow your shoes to dry out in between wearing for at least 24 hours to help prevent athletes foot.
• If you walk more than a block or two to work, wear your athletic shoes, then change them into stylish shoes at work.
• There really is no such thing as a corrective shoe. Even custom made shoes can't control the way we walk.

Biomechanical abnormal stresses cause unhealthy motions which ultimately cause the shoe to conform and break down, and this renders the shoe detrimental to continued wear. When this shoe deformity occurs fairly rapidly, your podiatrist can and should diagnose your problem, measure you for and have made a custom pair of functional orthotics.

Over the many years, I have seen parents bring in children with orthopedic shoes which have been described as corrective shoes. My experience is that often these shoes are so stiff that the shoe doesn't bend at the sole, even with the child's full weight. Lacking sufficient flexibility, these orthopedic shoes are injurious to the feet. Children's feet, when approached early, can be made to serve as a sturdy foundation during their later years. Shoes are helpful but are never corrective. If a parent has concerns, please summon your podiatrist.