I read the comments about the OESH Shoes on PM
News with interest. All the fuss was enough to
drive me to the OESH Shoe site. I was interested
enough by the concept to order a pair, and have
been wearing them almost two weeks. I have also
been in contact with the folks at OESH via
email.
They have recently changed their marketing
stance on orthotics as listed on their website.
Although they still preface their page with the
slogan “Ditch your orthotics,” they no longer
attempt to wholeheartedly condemn orthotic
therapy. But I wouldn’t care if they didn’t.
Here’s why.
First, the shoes are great. I have already
referred four patients to the website. Here’s
what the strengths of the shoe are: Amazing
shock attenuation. It'sike walking on a floating
floor. I accidentally walked off a one and a
half foot riser and barely jarred my knee. I
kept waiting for the pain to show up and it
didn’t.
Let me explain why I bought the shoes. I have
internal torsion in my R leg. I was born with
it. I began having medial knee pain in high
school, and began wearing orthotics for running
only also in high school. No matter what I wore,
I always had a unilateral abducted foot swing
during my running. I knew some day my foot or my
knee would give out, as I could not fix the foot
without significantly internally rotating my
knee.
Without a surgery to untwist my tibia, I was
just waiting for the arthritis to set in. Sure
enough—I’m in my mid-forties and shuffling
between medial knee pain/stiffness and an
encroaching 4th, 5th met stress fracture.
Here’s what the shoe did really well—the pain in
my 4th and 5th mets calmed down within 10 days.
My knees haven’t hurt, even with 20 minute leg
routines mostly made up of squats and lunges.
So far so good.
Here is what is bad: The 0 degree elevation in
the heel has put some stress on my R Achilles
tendon (which occasionally tweaked, but now
regularly aches). So here is what this naughty
podiatrist did with her OESH shoes. I stuck my
orthotics in them! They fit great and now my
Achilles tendon is improving AND my foot is less
stressed. So if the sole of the OESH shoe
attenuates shock, it can certainly attenuate the
medial knee strains that orthotics may worsen.
So I say, send your patients over, and tell them
not to worry. Their orthotics will fit in them!
Juliet Burk, DPM, Muskogee, OK, juliet-
burk@cherokee.org
