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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