Going barefoot eases burden on arthritic knees

Adults who suffer from knee osteoarthritis - the wear-and-tear form of arthritis - may want to go without shoes when they can, based on new research that suggests that walking in shoes increases loads on knee and hip joints in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
Osteoarthritis (OA) of the lower extremity is largely mediated by "aberrant biomechanical forces," note Dr Najia Shakoor and Dr Joel A. Block, from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.
"In knee OA, the most well-studied form, there is evidence that patients with abnormally high dynamic loading of the knees are at greater risk of incident and progressive diseases," they note.
"Consequently, strategies that effectively reduce loads on the knee during gait would be of great interest."