Humans moved barefoot, like any other animal, until relatively recently: the first indirect evidence that humans used footwear dates back to 40,000 years ago, while the oldest footwear ever recovered dates to 8,000 years ago. While the more sophisticated shoes, with heels and pads, did not begin to be manufactured until the Industrial Revolution.
Before that, the soles of the feet were the only contact between the ground and the body. We are convinced that wearing footwear is a hygienic practice, which precisely prevents this contact from being a route of infection transmission. Still, it may be more advantageous in the end to go barefoot than wearing shoes, according to new research published in the journal Nature . The answer is in the (unsightly) corns.
The study highlights the advantages of calluses on the feet when walking barefoot, since they offer more protection to the foot than any type of footwear without compromising tactile sensitivity. In other words, corns allow you to protect your feet when walking barefoot and, at the same time, feel the ground with the advantage of not wearing any type of footwear. In addition, going barefoot does not affect neighboring joints, unlike shoes, which can cause an impact force that affects the knees or ankles.
Faced with the prospect of walking on a surface that may be slippery, abrasive, or in some way, harmful or uncomfortable, shoes do not seem to bring more advantages than hard feet. On the contrary, the disadvantages of walking with shoes is that it reduces the sensitivity of the ground, in addition to the problems of load for the joints that we have discussed. In contrast, bare, callused feet provide a similar grip, but greater sensitivity, no added overload, and tactile sensitivity is not compromised.
But, pay attention! This does not mean that now it is advisable to abandon our shoes and start walking barefoot, especially if we are used to wearing them all our lives. Our skin would not have enough hardness for the positive conditions previously reported to occur.
The benefits of callused feet
The study shows how people in Kenya and the United States who frequently walk barefoot have thicker and harder calluses than those who wear footwear. In these, it was observed that corns, no matter how thick, do not reduce the ability to perceive tactile stimuli during walking , as shoes do.
The latter had never been proven before in a scientific study: “As far as we know, the function of the callus in relation to the sensory capacity of the human foot has never been proven, especially from an anthropological point of view,” explains researcher Thomas L. Milan in statements to the SINC Agency.
In addition, the thickness of the calluses did not affect the force with which the feet touched the ground when walking, the impact forces, something that shoes do cause, affecting the joints.
Furthermore, the thickness of the calluses does not affect the force with which the feet touch the ground when walking, as indicated by the impact forces. Although footwear reduces load rates on impact, it increases force impulses, “with unknown effects on the skeleton that warrant future study ,” the researchers detail.
Más información:
Nicholas B. Holowka, Bert Wynands, Tina J. Drechsel, Andrew K. Yegian, Victoria A. Tobolsky, Paul Okutoyi, Robert Mang’eni Ojiambo, Diresibachew W. Haile, Timothy K. Sigei, Claudio Zippenfennig, Thomas L. Milani & Daniel E. Lieberman. ‘Foot callus thickness does not trade off protection for tactile sensitivity during walking’. Nature, 26 de junio de 2019. DOI 10.1038/s41586-019-1345-6 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1345-6
