脚丫儿,你快乐吗?

今年雨水特别多，今年大家特别看重健康，今年也特别Crocs。一年多前Rico还想不明白为什么那么“丑”的洞洞鞋会有人穿着满街跑，今年却恋上洞洞，还给鞋子戴花花。一双能让人一穿上就不愿意再脱下的好鞋，除了要时尚好看，更重要的是健康舒适哦！你是否问过这个问题――脚丫儿，你快乐吗？

Maybe you’ve had pain in your heels when you first put your bare feet on the floor first thing in the morning. If so, could be the beginnings of a common

condition. It’s known as 1)plantar fasciitis. The

problem could point to your shoes. Allison Aubrey

reports on the kinds of shoes that 2)contribute to this problem and exercises that can help prevent it.

Elizabeth Kinkle has never had heel pain or heard much about plantar fasciitis. She’s a 24-year-old architect living in Washington. And this time of year, she likes to walk to work in her “flip-flops,” which she was happily doing the other day when we

3)approached her along with a foot doctor named Steve Pribut, who is not a fan of “flip-flops.”

Kinkle: They’re pretty comfortable, keep your feet cool, so it’s nice.

Aubrey: And do you wear them all day long or do you just sort of wear them when you’re 4)commuting?

Kinkle: I just wear them walking back and forth to work and then put on the heels once I get into the

office, so…

Pribut: I notice a band-aid on that foot. Is that from a heel?

Kinkle: Uhm, yeah, it actually is from…well, they’re actually really cute 5)wedge sandals, but they kinda dig in ’cause they’re new.

Kneeling down for a quick examination, Pribut

explains that both of Elizabeth’s work day shoe

choices the “flip-flops” and the backless sandals 6)pose the same potential problem that could lead to plantar fasciitis. He says, when your heel does not stay attached to your shoe, there’s a lot of extra

motion in the foot.

Pribut: Wearing an open-back shoe, when the heel lifts off the ground, there’s a lot of tension that

develops in the 7)plantar fascia, and it increases the angle that the whole foot makes with the ground, and the toes bend up further, and that just stretches the plantar fascia more.

The plantar fascia is a band of 8)connective

tissue in the foot, similar in 9)texture to a 10)ligament. It runs all the way from the heel, up through the ball of the foot, and strands wrap around each toe. It’s 11)vulnerable to injury, especially as we age. But your choice in shoes can make a difference. To prevent

injury, people don’t have to 12)toss out “flip-flops” or high heels entirely, but when you’re walking a lot, 13)presumably on hard sidewalks, Dr. Pribut says it’s

better to wear shoes with some support. Back at his office, he picks up a pair of Asics jogging shoes that he says are ideal. They’re light weight, don’t have too much heavy 14)cushion, and, most importantly, they do not bend in the middle.

Pribut: When I take this shoe and press it down, it bends just at the ball of the foot, where the toes attach to the foot. That’s right where the shoe should bend.

When shoes have too much bend in the middle, Pribut says it puts tension on the plantar fascia. One of the biggest 15)offenders among fashionable shoes today is the ballet slipper or very thin “flats.” Out on the street, outside Pribut’s office, we see lots of women wearing them. Dominique Arvanitis says she likes them because they’re 16)comfy.

Arvanitis: I walk around a lot, so the flats are good for me.

Perhaps, compared to heels. But Pribut says 17)swapping them out for Crocs or sandals with a little support and a strap around the back would be a big improvement.

Pribut: The ballet slippers scare me just about as much as the flip-flops do.

If you’re now wondering whether there are any fashionable dress shoes that may actually be good for your feet, it might be time to ask a different question. That is: what can you do to strengthen or stretch your feet when you’re not wearing shoes? That’s where foot doctor Colleen Schwartz comes in. She’s 18)merged 19)podiatry with 20)Pilates for a more preventive approach.

Schwartz: We ask a lot of our feet. There are so many bones. There are 26 bones there, 33 joints, 100 muscles and ligaments and 21)tendons. And, in order to give them the attention they deserve, spending a little bit of time every day can be so beneficial.

A little time means just 3 or 4 minutes of stretching and 22)toning, and Schwartz says the best time to do it is first thing in the morning. Before even getting out of bed, she starts with an 23)Achilles tendon stretch. Here’s how you do it. You take a towel or a strap and grab each end. You wrap the middle of it behind the ball of your foot and then stretch your foot towards your shin by pulling the towel.

Schwartz: Getting an increased plantar fascia stretch at the same time is drawing the toes even further up.

Meaning 24)flexing the toes as much as possible. The idea behind this stretch is that the fibres of the Achilles

tendon go all the way to the heel, so there’s a strong

connection between a 25)limber Achilles and a healthy plantar fascia. Schwartz says all the foot exercises she does at home, she does barefoot. It’s also fun to go barefoot

on the beach or in the grass. But when she goes about her daily life outside home, she does 26)advocate shoes, as does 27)podiatrist Steve Pribut.

Pribut: Well, I think barefoot is good for some things; shoes are good for others.

Pribut says the “barefoot movement注” may be gaining

a little attention for its 28)novelty. And the idea that

thousands of years ago shoeless civilisations had healthier feet could be true. But, Pribut says, back then the 29)average

life expectancy was about 30, and cave woman didn’t have to contend with glass, nails, hard 30)concrete or fashion.

一大早，当你赤着脚接触到地板的第一下，你也许已经觉得脚后隐隐作痛。如果出现这种情况，这有可能就是一种常见病的前兆――这种症状被称为“足底腱膜炎”。问题的起因源自你的鞋子。艾丽森・奥布利将为我们讲述引发问题的鞋子类型，并介绍预防此症的保健运动。

伊丽莎白・金科从不曾脚后跟疼痛，也从未听说过“足底腱膜炎”这种病症。她是一位建筑师，今年24岁，住在华盛顿州。每年一到这个时节，她就喜欢穿着夹脚拖鞋去上班。这天我们和一位名叫史蒂夫・普利比特的足科医生走近她时，她正穿着夹脚拖鞋高兴地行走着，而普利比特医生则不太支持人们穿夹脚

拖鞋。

金科：它们穿起来很舒服，能保持双脚凉爽，所以（我觉得）它们很棒。

奥布利：你是一整天都穿着它们走路，还是只在上下班时才穿上呢？

金科：我只是穿着它们上下班，一旦去到办公室就会换上高跟鞋，所以……

普利比特：我看到你那只脚上有块止血贴。是高跟鞋（刮脚）弄的吗？

金科：呃，是的，它实际上是来自……呃，那实际上是对非常可爱的坡跟拖鞋，但因为它们是新鞋子，所以有点刮脚。

普利比特蹲下来快速地对伊丽莎白的脚进行检查，他说伊丽莎白这两种上班用鞋选择――夹脚拖鞋和无后帮拖鞋――均有导致足底腱膜炎的潜在危险。他说当你的脚跟与鞋子无法保持紧贴时，你的脚都得做大量的额外运动。

普利比特：若是穿着没有后帮的鞋子，当脚跟抬离地面时，脚部的跖腱膜将会高度紧绷，足部与地面产生的角度增大，脚趾的弯曲程度也将因此增加，而这种情况就会使跖腱膜越趋

拉伸。

跖腱膜是脚部的结缔组织，就像肌理对于韧带的功能一样。跖腱膜从脚跟一直伸展至脚趾肚，将每个脚趾重重包裹。它非常容易受损，特别是随着我们年龄的增长（情况会越趋恶化）。不过你选择的鞋子可以带来不同。人们也不必为了避免损伤而彻底摒弃夹脚拖鞋或高跟鞋，但假若你经常步行，比如在坚硬的人行道上行走时，普利比特医生认为我们最好穿着能提供一定承托的鞋子。回到办公室后，他拿出一双亚瑟士慢跑鞋，说穿上这种鞋子步行就非常理想。它们非常轻，没有太厚重的垫子，最重要的是，鞋的中间部分

不会弯曲。

普利比特：当我拿起这只鞋子往下压时，鞋子正好在脚趾肚的位置弯曲，脚趾与足部在这个位置相连。这正是一双好鞋子应该弯曲的地方。

假若鞋子中部过度弯曲，普利比特医生说这种情况会对跖腱膜造成挤压。如今，时尚鞋子中最大的祸首便是芭蕾舞鞋或是超薄平底鞋。就在普利比特办公室外的大街上，我们看到许多女性穿着这种鞋子。多米尼克・阿凡尼提斯说她非常喜欢这种鞋子，因为它们穿起来很舒适。

阿凡尼提斯：我经常到处走，所以平底鞋很适合我。

也许这种舒适只是对于高跟鞋而言。普利比特认为若以Crocs洞洞鞋或其它能提供一点承托且有带子圈绑后跟的拖鞋替代它们会更好。

普利比特：芭蕾舞鞋和夹脚拖鞋同样让我

害怕。

如果你正纳闷是否有既时尚又对双脚有益的鞋子，也许就是该提出另一个问题的时候了。这个问题就是：不穿鞋时，我们可以怎样强化或伸展双脚呢？这就要找来足科医生科琳・斯瓦兹。她将足病学与“普拉提”相结合，以求获得更有效的预防措施。

斯瓦兹：我们对双脚有很多疑问。它有很多块骨头，有26块骨头、33个关节和一百多块肌肉、韧带及腱位。因此，为了给予它们应得的关注，每天花点时间（在双脚上）将会非常有益。

这一点时间指的是仅仅三到四分钟的伸展和舒缓，另外斯瓦兹称，早晨一起床正是给双脚放松的最好时机。在下床之前，她就开始进行跟腱伸展运动。以下是伸展方法：拿出一条毛巾或布条，抓住两端。用毛巾或布条的中间部分裹住脚趾肚，朝着胫部方向伸展双脚并拉紧毛巾。

斯瓦兹：同时增大跖腱膜的伸展量，这可以增大脚趾间能拉开的距离。

这意味着尽可能地活动脚趾。这样伸展背后的意义在于让跟腱的纤维一直延伸到脚跟，从而柔软的跟腱就能带来健康的跖腱膜。斯瓦兹说，她在家里做所有脚部练习时都会赤着脚。在沙滩或者草地上赤脚走路也非常好玩。但是在日常外出做事时，她仍提倡人们穿上鞋子，足科医疗师史蒂夫・普利比特所见略同。

普利比特：呃，我认为做某些事情时适宜赤脚，而做其它事情时则应该穿上鞋子。

普利比特说，“赤脚运动”也许正因其新颖性而受到关注。几千年前不穿鞋子的人类拥有更健康的双脚这种想法也许是对的。然而，普利比特说，那个时候人类的平均寿命大概只有30岁，而且穴居女性也不必与玻璃、钉子、坚硬的混凝土或时尚抗争。