I’ve written previously about the support of shoes over bare feet in the medical community when there is little, if any, empirical evidence that supports wearing shoes habitually. However, I think it’s worth revisiting after two excellent posts from last week from Barefoot Voice and Ahcuah.
The first post explores the ridiculousness of defaulting to shoes simply because there isn’t a consensus on the issue of bare feet versus shoes. Imagine if I told you that I had invented a new device that improved the use of your hands. You’d immediately ask me to prove my device is superior. But, instead of doing so, I insist that you should use my device because there’s no proof that bare hands are superior. Your reasonable reaction would be to say that that is the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. Yet, many in the medical community apply the exact same logic to footwear: Wear shoes until it’s proven that bare feet are better.
The post also points out that, even if it was proven that shoes are a superior choice for a particular individual, that doesn’t mean they are best for everyone. Eyeglasses are helpful for someone with poor vision, but if an optometrist prescribed eyeglasses to patients with 20/20 vision, he’d be on a bullet train to losing his license.
The second post discusses 11 reasons why podiatrists are against being barefoot. In essence, the list boils down to podiatrists drawing poor conclusions based on shoes being the norm. They start with the point-of-view that shoes can’t be the cause of the foot problems. After all, everyone wears shoes, but not everyone has foot problems. But, this is like saying a dangerous road isn’t the cause of car accidents because only 20 percent of people driving on the road have an accident. The fact that 80 percent of drivers were able to escape without an accident doesn’t dismiss those who had an accident.
The other big issue is population bias. What this means is that podiatrists are only seeing patients who have foot problems. Very few, if any, people who have never had a foot problem go to podiatrists just to get a checkup. The first thing a podiatrist likely looks for is anything about the patient that is different from the norm. If the patient goes barefoot, then the podiatrist may conclude that: 1. Bare feet are the cause of the patient’s problem and 2. Going barefoot is bad for everyone. But these conclusions are poor science because the podiatrist’s patient population is not representative of the population as a whole. (Anecdotally, the last time I went for a physical exam, the doctor commented on how healthy my feet are, and I’ve heard the same from others who go barefoot.)
Imagine an auto mechanic who exclusively works on General Motors vehicles. One day a customer brings in a Ford. The Ford only has 20,000 miles on it, but is in terrible shape: the engine has seized, the transmission is busted, the body work is rusted. The mechanic might conclude: “Wow, Ford builds terrible cars.” But, this is a scientifically weak conclusion. He’s basing it on a sample of one. Maybe this Ford is the only car in the entire fleet that had these problems. The same applies to podiatrists who generalize based only on their own patients.
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