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Steps For Keeping Your Feet A Healthy Foundation
Plus: making neuroplasticity work for you
The 10almonds Team
June 06, 2023
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Loading Screen Tip: we all know to avoid blue/white light in the evenings, to avoid disrupting our sleep. But… Remember to get blue/white light in the morning (ideally between 08:30 and 09:00, especially), ideally from the sun, for the healthiest circadian rhythm and good brain health!
Note: even on a day when the sky is partly clouded, sunlight will usually outperform artificial lighting for this—even artificial sunlight lighting.
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Omega-3 can be very beneficial for our health, and not just our joints and brain as commonly thought-of, our eyes (technically an extension of the brain) benefit a lot too!
See today’s video for more on this
Feet are literally foundational to the rest of our health. If they’re in bad order, everything else can fold like a house of cards.
Today’s featured expert, Dr. Kelly Starrett, advises:
Wear flat shoes
No, really truly flat, zero drop (heel is no higher than the rest, at all)
Not flip-flops or similar though
Thus allowing your feet to move like feet, now actually move them like feet
Good foot position and posture is critical for not sabotaging your long-term foot health
Today’s sponsor, Mira, are offering an all-in-one home fertility kit and tracker with lab-grade tech for predicting ovulation accurately, even if you (or your loved one) have confounding factors such as PCOS—it takes it all into account and uses a lot of science to predict accurately anyway.
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
“I Took Omega-3 Fish Oil for 90 days, Here's What Happened”
You can also click here and then on “more” to see links to get discounts on before/after blood tests for your omega-3 levels, and also some links to shop for fish oils or vegan equivalents if you prefer (vegan equivalents are generally omega-3 from flax or algae)
(we have no stake in whether you buy via them or not; we just mention for your information and convenience)
🥾 MAIN FEATURE
Important Steps For Good Health
This is Dr. Kelly Starrett. He’s a physiotherapist, author, speaker, trainer. He has been described as a "celebrity" and "founding father" of CrossFit. He mostly speaks and writes about mobility in general; today we’re going to be looking at what he has to say specifically about our feet.
A strong foundation
“An army marches on its stomach”, Napoleon famously wrote.
More prosaically: an army marches on its feet, and good foot-care is a top priority for soldiers—indeed, in some militaries, even so much as negligently getting blisters is a military offense.
Most of us are not soldiers, but there’s a lesson to be learned here:
Your feet are the foundation for much of the rest of your health and effectiveness.
KISS for feet
No, not like that.
Rather: “Keep It Simple, Stupid”
Dr. Starrett is not only a big fan of not overcomplicating things, but also, he tells us how overcomplicating things can actively cause problems. When it comes to footwear, for example, he advises:
❝When you wear shoes, wear the flat kind. If you’re walking the red carpet on Oscar night, fine, go ahead and wear a shoe with a heel. Once in a while is okay.
But most of the time, you should wear shoes that are flat and won’t throw your biological movement hardware into disarray.
When you have to wear shoes, whether it’s running shoes, work shoes, or combat boots, buy the flat kind, also known as “zero drop”—meaning that the heel is not raised above the forefoot (at all).
What you want to avoid, or wean yourself away from, are shoes with the heels raised higher off the ground than the forefeet.❞
Of course, going barefoot is great for this, but may not be an option for all of us when out and about. And in the home, going barefoot (or shod in just socks) will only confer health benefits if we’re actually on our feet! So… How much time do you spend on your feet at home?
Allow your feet to move like feet
By evolution, the human body is built for movement—especially walking and running. That came with moving away from hanging around in trees for fruit, to hunting and gathering between different areas of the savannah. Today, our hunting and gathering may be done at the local grocery store, but we still need to keep our mobility, especially when it comes to our feet.
Now comes the flat footwear you don’t want: flip-flops and similar
If we wear flip-flops, or other slippers or shoes that hold onto our feet only at the front, we’re no longer walking like we’re supposed to. Instead of being the elegant product of so much evolution, we’re now walking like those AT-AT walkers in Star Wars, you know, the ones that fell over so easily?
Our feet need to be able to tilt naturally while walking/running, without our footwear coming off.
Golden rule for this: if you can’t run in them, you shouldn’t be walking in them
Exception: if for example you need something on your feet for a minute or two in the shower at the gym/pool, flip-flops are fine. But anything more than that, and you want something better.
Watch your step
There’s a lot here that’s beyond the scope of what we can include in this short newsletter, but:
If we stand or walk or run incorrectly, we’re doing gradual continual damage to our feet and ankles (potentially also our knees and hips, which problems in turn have a knock-on effect for our spine, and you get the idea—this is Bad™)
Some general pointers for keeping things in good order include:
Your weight should be mostly on the balls of your feet, not your heels
Your feet should be pretty much parallel, not turned out or in
When standing, your center of gravity should be between the balls of your feet
Quick tip for accomplishing this last one: Stand comfortably, your feet parallel, shoulder-width apart. Now, go up on your tip-toes. When you’ve done so, note where your spine is, and keep it there (apart from in its up-down axis) when you slowly go back to having your feet flat on the ground, so it’s as though your spine is sliding down a pole that’s fixed in place.
If you do this right, your center of gravity will now be perfectly aligned with where it’s supposed to be. It might feel a bit weird at first, but you’ll get used to it, and can always reset it whenever you want/need, by repeating the exercise.
If you’d like to know more from Dr. Starrett, you can check out his website here :)
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Mira: the world’s smartest, clinically-proven ovulation and fertility tracker
Mira is the all-in-one home kit that uses lab-grade technology to measure 4 key fertility hormones through urine:
Tracks LH, E3G, PdG, and FSH
Identifies your 6 most fertile days
Predicts & confirms your ovulation
Translates your results into numbers
It also comes with an app that keeps track of everything for you, and pinpoints your ovulation—even if you have PCOS!
With PCOS, your hormonal curves look unique. Mira allows you to capture your cycle’s patterns nonetheless, and pinpoint your ovulation to reach your goals.
Mira Fertility has empowered thousands of women to know better about their fertility and health! So whether it's yourself or a loved one that's thinking of getting pregnant, this is a way to make that journey a much smoother ride.
🌏 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
Virtual blood vessel technology could improve heart disease care
Is there radiographic evidence of premature brain aging in individuals with Type 1 Diabetes?
This common artificial sweetener can break down DNA, scientists warn
"I knew the terror of lost time": how my father’s dementia echoed my own alcoholism
Microparticle-delivered therapy likely to be the first step toward stopping autoimmune diseases
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Lack of Focus, Anger, and Memory Problems - by Dr. Daniel G. Amen
To what extent can we change our brains, and to what extent are we stuck with what we have?
Dr. Amen tells us that being mindful of both ends of this is critical:
Neuroplasticity means we can, indeed, change our brains
We do, however, have fundamental "brain types" based on our neurochemistry and physical brain structure
He argues for the use of brain imaging technology to learn more about the latter... In order to better go about doing what we can with the former.
The book looks at how these different brain types can lead to situations where what works as a treatment for one person can often not work for another. It's also prescriptive, about what sorts of treatments (and lifestyle adjustments) are more likely to do better for each.
Where the book excels is in giving ideas and pointers for exploration... Things to take to one's doctor, and—for example—request certain tests, and then what to do with those.
Where the book is a little light is on including hard science in the explanations. The hard science is referred to, but is considered beyond the scope of the book, or perhaps beyond the interest of the reader. That's unfortunate, as we'd have liked to have seen more of it, rather than taking claims at face value without evidence.
Bottom line: this is distinctly "pop science" in presentation, but can give a lot of great ideas for learning more about our own brains and brain health... And then optimizing such.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
May your way forward see you going from strength to strength,
The 10almonds Team