Shoes off for your brain and balance
Shoes off for your brain and balance
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How do you think you would go knitting a scarf, wearing snow gloves? Not a knitter? What about tying your shoe laces with snow gloves?
I think you would agree, both activities would be pretty difficult.
Why?
Because you don’t have the full use of your sense of touch. The message from your fingers to your brain is augmented due to being dulled by the gloves.
Now imagine that you have been wearing snow gloves for most of your waking hours for 50 years. Even if you you took the gloves off, you would have trouble doing just about anything, because your sensory nerves in your hands would be useless from years of inactivity.
Now consider how much of your waking life you have been wearing shoes!
Is it any wonder that your balance is going, that you trip up on things, that you are more clumsy than you used to be?
So much has been discovered in recent years about the brain’s ability to rewire and regenerate. If you are over 50, you will never have the balance you did in your 20’s but it can always improve.
Keeping good balance into your old age is vitally important. So many of our parents will end up in hospital due to simple falls. The injuries that result of falls often lead to permanent loss of independence, loss of dignity and ultimate a lower quality of life.
The lesson is clear, keep the shoes off to protect your balance and brain.
We are not suggesting that you walk the Great Ocean Walk without shoes, you don’t need to go that far. Just ensure that you go bare foot as much as is practical. Even walking on grass, or the beach will get those nerves cranking up again.
You balance will improve in no time!
