The human foot is a delicate, complex structure of
33 joints and 26 bones, wrapped in a web of 126
muscles, ligaments and nerves. The most utilized
part of our bodies, the average person spends
four hours (pounding out 8,000 to 10,000 steps) on
their feet every day. We exert a force equivalent to
several hundred tons every day on our poor southern
extremities.
So what do we encase our body’s precious shock
absorbers in these days? The fashion gods have
women wearing the sky-highest heels in history, and
women worldwide are bombarded with images of
Lady Gaga or Victoria Beckham teetering around
in insane six inch-plus “killer heels.” Two in five
American women now wear high heels every day, and
43 percent claim they won’t give them up, despite
the misery.1 Other foot-bruising fashions: fashionable
and unsupportive ballet flats and flip-flops, and the
running world’s mania for the new, nearly barefoot