第20話｜ローファーにご用心

ローファーが学生の膝腰の痛みの原因に

YOSHIRO STUDIOには若者も多く来院します。進学してから膝や腰のトラブルが出たというケースが多く、原因のほとんどが学校の指定靴となっているローファー（スリッポン）です。

　するっと履きやすい点は便利なのですが、かかとが抜けやすいため、足に変な力が入って疲れやすくなったり、脱げないよう足を引きずるような歩き方になったり。前滑りしやすく、前方に押し込まれる圧力などで足指を痛め、外反母趾や屈み指になるなど足指が変形してしまい、足裏のバランスが悪くなって、腰痛や膝痛につながるわけです。

　ローファーは履き口をひもで調節できません。革靴の方に足を合わせていかねばならないことが問題なのですが、そこが見過ごされがちです。最近増えている男性の外反母趾も、このようなの革靴に原因があるケースもあります。

　慢性腰痛を「腰椎すべり症」と診断された女子中学生。安静を指示され、大好きなバレエを続けることはできず、手術を勧められていました。履いている靴を見ると、ひもが緩く、靴の中で足が滑っていたため、親指が浮き指になっていました。

　この連載をずっと読んでくださった読者の皆さんには、私がどんな対策をとるか、分かりますよね。そうです。まず、正しい靴の履き方を指導。足指に手の指を差し込み、広げて伸ばす体操「ひろのば体操」を毎日行ってもらうように指示したところ、２週間後には「腰の痛みがなくなり、バレエを踊っても大丈夫だった」と満面の笑みでした。ところが１年後、高校進学と同時に腰痛が再発します。今度は運動が全くできなくなりました。案の定、通学はローファー、校内はスリッパと、学校から指定されていました。

　学校に事情を説明し、すべてひも靴に代えてもらった途端、腰痛はうそのように消えました。

　教育機関には履物への柔軟な対応が望まれますが、規則でローファーしか履けない場合、靴の中で足が滑ったり、かかとが浮いたりしないよう、パンプスバンドを利用する方法もあります。もちろん、ひろのば体操との併用が原則です。運動能力の低下がローファーで起こっているとは思いもよらないと思います。

よく怪我をしたり、思うように運動の技術が身につかないときは、足元を見直してみてください。

Watch out for the loafers! 

◎ Backache and knee pain resulting from school-designated shoes

I have a lot of patients who are young and yet experience pain in their backs and knees, especially after they start going to new schools.  In most cases, the cause for the pain is the loafer-style shoes that are designated by schools as part of their uniforms.  

Although such shoes are very convenient to put on, as you can simply slide them onto your feet, they do not hold the heel securely so that your feet expend unnecessary strength trying to hold onto the shoe, and ends up making you drag your feet when you walk.  In this situation, your feet can easily slide forwards so that your toes hurt as they are pushed up against the front of the shoes. This results in crooked toes, such as bunions and hammer toes, and it is harder to keep your balance, as well as causing backache and knee pain.

Loafers cannot be stabilized with shoelaces.  The fact that you have to make your foot fit to the shoe itself is the problem, which is something many people do not realize.  Such shoes may attribute to the increasing number of bunions found in men.

A junior high school girl, who had been diagnosed with spondylolisthesis (slipped disc) after she presented with chronic back pain, was told that she should rest, give up ballet which she loved, and advised to undergo surgery.  When I checked her shoes, her shoelaces were loose and her feet were able to slide within her shoes, which was causing her big toe to float.

If you’ve read the previous chapters, you can already guess the outcome of this story.  I advised her of the correct way to wear shoes and showed her how to do the HIRONOBA^® Exercise. Two weeks later, her pain had gone and she was completely fine and was able to take her ballet class, which she reported to me with a big smile on her face.

◎ Schools need to be flexible

However, one year later she returned to my office with back pain shortly after commencing high school. This time, she was unable to play any sports.  As I suspected, the shoes required for the school uniform were the loafer-style shoes and she had to wear slip-on shoes while at school.  After explaining the situation to her school and having the shoe restrictions changed so that shoes with shoelaces became part of the uniform, her backache disappeared.

We wish that all schools would respond accordingly in situations like this, but in the case where the schools do not allow other types of shoes other than loafers, elastic can be worn around the middle of the longitudinal arch, which women who wear high-heels sometimes use to stabilize their feet and high-heels, so that their heels will remain fitted to the heels of their shoes.  Needless to say, doing the HIRONOBA^® Exercise at the same time is essential.  

Many teachers may not even realize that their students’ athletic abilities are decreasing owing to wearing the loafers.  Teachers are encouraged to look at a student’s feet carefully if the student seems to be prone to injury or if they seem to be lagging behind their peers in athletic ability.