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05/22/2018 Keith L. Gurnick, DPM
Memory Foam Foot Syndrome (Timothy P. Shea, DPM)
Alas, Dr, Shea, you are not alone. I too have seen an increase in the number of patients coming in where I am diagnosing, specifically either plantar fasciitis, and/ or associated peroneal tendinitis in non-athletic patients who either walk for exercise, walk their dogs, walk the grandchildren, or just do their activities of daily living, wearing the shoes you are eluding to.
It seems to be almost always women in my practice who purchase these types of shoes and have these specific issues. However, I relate the issues more to the "non-structured" outer soles of the shoes, rather than the internal memory foam as the cause. For some patients, these types of shoes are just too flexible in the transverse, frontal and sagittal planes to provide proper support and induce proper foot function.
The manufacturer's advertising and claims of "comfort and cushioning" influences the public to purchase these shoes and use them on a daily basis, because they are very soft and comfortable at first, and people think they are healthy as well. It appears that the extended, repetitive, daily wearing of these so called "cushioned- comfort activity shoes" in some people can lead to increase soft tissue repetitive stress injuries such as I am seeing and you too are also seeing.
I teach the patients, just like I am sure that you do, the purpose of an exercise, walking or activity shoe, to include proper support and to induce normal foot function with standing and locomotion, and I show them examples of what I feel are proper shoes. I tell them to stop wearing these shoes.
Getting these patients into better, "proper" shoes, along with our usual treatments including taping, physical therapy and either OTC pre-fab inserts or custom Rx foot orthotics when indicated and necessary almost always solves the problem and educates the patient so that the problem is less likely to return.
Somewhat unrelated, is the increase in the numbers of both men and women I am seeing wearing another shoe called AllBirds, which has uppers made of soft merino wool but an outer sole that is not as flexible as the Skechers or other similar shoe styles. This is also a very soft comfortable walking shoe, but with a somewhat better outer sole.
Here is a link to AllBirds for anyone interested in learning about them. (I have no relationship and nothing to do with any shoe company) https://www.allbirds.com/ The world's most comfortable shoes, made naturally, Using materials like merino wool and eucalyptus tree fiber, Allbirds has created the comfiest shoes on the Earth.
Keith L. Gurnick, DPM, Los Angeles, CA
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