Are comfort shoes always more healthful? Not necessarily, according to some

游客2024-11-19  7

问题     Are comfort shoes always more healthful? Not necessarily, according to some foot doctors. Buying shoes from a store specializing in comfort shoes doesn’t guarantee that they will be comfortable or good for you.
    What makes a shoe a "comfort shoe"? Generally speaking, it means cushioning under the foot and supportive features such as arch support. Birkenstock sandals, another comfort line, have a molded foot bed with an indented heel cup and a bump under the forefoot—the metatarsal pad, which deflects pressure away from the ball of the foot. "They’re a really comfortable choice for many people," says Erika Schwartz, a foot specialist with DC Foot and Ankle. But for others, not so much. You know what they say about if the shoe fits—well, not all comfort shoes are comfortable or healthy for every foot. A small study of people with knee problems found that walking in clogs and so-called stability shoes was harder on the knees than walking barefoot or in flip-flops. This suggests that certain supportive shoes can alter your manner of walking in a way that’s unhealthy for joints above the ankle, at least temporarily and in people with arthritis.
    "What are the best shoes to wear? I hear this question 20 times a day," says Selene Parekh, a surgeon at Duke University Health System. Parekh says to look for a shoe that’s supportive and comfortable for you. That may not mean spending nearly $200 on a pair of loafers marketed to fit what one shoemaker calls the "anatomical footbed." If you are having foot problems, the best thing to do is figure out the type of foot you have and how you walk. Do you pronate—rotate your foot so that the inner edge of the sole bears the bulk of your weight? How high or how flat are your arches? When a patient comes in with foot pain, Parekh looks at the wear pattern on her shoes. If the inner part of the sole is worn, he’ll look for flat feet overloading that area. Outer-sole wear may indicate high arches. More wear on the heel or under the ball of the foot can show whether a person is a heel-striker or a forefoot-striker when he walks. These wear patterns are not problems in and of themselves. "If you don’t have pain, your walking pattern is fine," Parekh says. If you do have pain, a foot expert—either a foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon or a foot expert—can help you understand shoe features to look for and to avoid. For example, if you have painful swellings, you want to look for a more box-shaped toe, Parekh says, "to not compress that part of the foot."
    What about minimalist shoes, designed to honor the form and function of the foot? They are the contrary of the comfort shoe: Advocates say that cushioned supportive shoes encourage runners to land on their heels, which can lead to bad form and chronic injury. However, minimalist shoes are not right for everyone. "We’ve seen enough patients with Achilles tendon issues and stress fractures from running in these," Schwartz says. And whether the purported benefits hold true for walking and standing has not been nearly as well studied.
    People with high arches are more likely than flat-foot types to roll an ankle in clogs, Schwartz says. That’s because arch height can affect which part of your foot bears the most weight as you walk. Properly aligned ankles sit directly over the heels. Feet are pronated when the heels tilt out from the body and the ankles roll in—picture young children on ice skates—a characteristic that is often linked to flat feet. When heels tilt in and the ankles roll out, the feet are supinated; this often occurs with very high arches.
    An orthotic insert that raise the outer edge of the foot can help stabilize a supinated foot within the clog, Schwartz says. Orthotic inserts, whether purchased at the drugstore or custom-made, are designed to correct the alignment of the foot and ankle, which helps maintain proper positioning of the knees and hips and even the lower back. Clinical studies of orthotics demonstrate their usefulness in many serious foot problems, such as diabetic neuropathy. For the rest of us, with more everyday aches and pains of life on our feet, there’s less applicable research. A 2008 review of research on easing foot pain found one small study in which custom orthotics helped people with high-arch, supinated feet. For other conditions, such as swellings, the evidence was equivocal. Foot experts recommend shopping at shoe stores with experienced staff who take the time to do a good fitting. Schwartz sends her patients to high-end running shoe stores with a description of what to look for and what to avoid. [br] It can be inferred from the passage that________.

选项 A、comfort shouldn’t be the first factor to be considered when choosing shoes
B、being barefoot is a good treatment for those with knee problems
C、expensive shoes aren’t always worth a large amount of money
D、the way how a person walks may cause pain to his feet

答案 A

解析 推断题。文章第一句就提出问题:舒适的鞋就是更健康的鞋吗?接下来的答案是:不一定。由此可知,舒适不等于健康,而众所周知,健康的鞋才应该是最好的,因此[A]为正确答案。第二段倒数第二句提到,对于那些膝关节有问题的人来说,穿着所谓的稳定型跑鞋还不如光着脚,但这并不能说明对于膝关节有问题的人,光着脚是好的治疗方法,故排除[B];第三段第四句作者提到了售价为200美元的拖鞋,并且通过巴力医生的话说明昂贵的鞋子不一定都是合适的,但并没有说昂贵的鞋子不值这个价钱,故排除[C];第三段最后四句中,巴力医生明确表示,不管一个人怎么走路,造成什么样的磨损,其本身都不是问题,只要脚不痛,就没有问题,因此排除[D]。
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