Running shoe prescription: what do we REALLY know?

IS THIS A GOOD SHOE FOR ME? Well...Who knows??!!

Imagine you’re back in high school chemistry. You take 5 units of compound A and mix it with 5 units of compound B. You knew exactly what chemical reaction you were going to get. Unfortunately, the consistency that exists in a chemistry lab does not exist when you are dealing with people.

That’s a problem when you are a healthcare provider. Nobody ever knows for sure how a person is going to react to a drug, a surgery or a rehabilitation exercise protocol. Give the same rehab protocol to 10 different people with Achilles tendinopathy and you will not get the same outcome. More likely, you will get 10 different outcomes. The reason we don’t know is because there are so many variables – acute vs chronic, what part of the tendon, nutritional status, stress, genetics, occupation, mobility, stability/motor control, psychosocial fear about their condition, daily postural habits, medications etc., etc.

This brings me to the topic of this post: Footwear.