And the Unfortubate News about Flip Flop Slippers Is...

Flip-flop slippers are such a summertime favorite anywhere in the country; sometimes, you wonder if people prefer the summer just for an opportunity to go about nearly barefoot the way flip-flops allow them to. Of course, nature makes sure people never get away with anything they really like. You know what's in store next, don't you?

New research from Alabama shows that flip-flop slippers can be terrible for the health and alignment of your feet and your legs. If you really prefer flip-flops that you wear with straps or thongs, and if you wear them for long enough, you can end up with ankles and feet that are really sore, these researchers are found having studied the biomechanics of feet shot in flip-flops.

What exactly happens with these soft and fun icons of the summer that they can have this kind of effect on you? Studying the biomechanics of how we walk in flip flops, the researchers found that we completely alter our gait when we walk in slippers. Nothing that changes your gait can be good for you; usually, it results in a painful hip and lower back condition, not to mention painful legs.

The study took up several dozen young men and women to study for the effects of flip-flops on human feet. They used techniques that made it possible for them to study their subjects' footfalls so that they could determine the amount of vertical force their feet experienced each time they took a step. They also studied the kinds of angles their subjects positioned their legs and feet when they walked in flip flops. When they compared all of this to the way these very same subjects walked with normal athletic shoes, people who wear flip-flops, seemed to instinctively know that they needed to take short steps and to walk with a great deal more delicateness. People in flip-flop slippers don't even lift their feet as far away from the ground as they walk as people tend to do with well-fitting shoes. The thing is, flip-flop wearers are completely aware that there isn't much that holds their slippers to their feet. To keep their flip-flops from moving around, people tend to curl their feet up a bit and to tightly hold on to their flip-flops with their toes. And they aren't confident moving their feet freely about either because they're afraid their slippers will fall off.

Of course, people love their flip-flops for the kind of freedom they give them. To constantly worry if your footwear is going to fall off doesn't really sound like freedom, now does it?