In fact, if you have pain anywhere in your foot, wearing supportive shoes or slippers can reduce the strain on that area and prevent you from compensating in a way that causes a new ache. For example, “If you have pain on the inside of your foot, you’re going to roll a little bit more to the outside,” Dr. Stewart says. “That usually brings new issues to the table, because different tendons and ligaments are going to be working harder.”
Your feet have some natural protection against pressure in the form of fat pads underneath your heel and the ball of your foot. But with age – especially after your 50s – those cushiony pads may thin or break down. People “will say things like, ‘It just kind of feels like I’m walking on my bones,’ or, ‘I feel fine during the day, but it hurts when I’m barefoot on my hard floor or the tile in my bathroom,’” Dr. Canzanese says. When that happens, it makes sense to replace that lost intrinsic cushioning with footwear.
In addition, people with any type of neuropathy (nerve damage) or circulation issues in their feet should always wear shoes, even inside the house, Dr. Canzanese says. These problems are common if you have diabetes, but there are other underlying causes. For instance, autoimmune diseases and infections like Lyme disease can cause neuropathy, while high blood pressure or clogged arteries can impair circulation.
If you have nerve damage in your feet, you might not feel it if you step on something or cut yourself, she says. And if your circulation is poor, any injury you develop will be slow to heal and prone to infection.
But for other people, going barefoot at least some of the time does have benefits
If you don’t fall into those categories, there are reasons to spend at least some of your at-home hours out of footwear. Most shoes push your toes together so they don’t splay naturally as you walk; that compression may contribute to or worsen conditions like bunions (bony bumps at the base of your big toe) and hammertoes (tight tendons that force your toes into a curled-up position), Dr. Stewart says.
In addition, wearing shoes all the time affects all the little intrinsic foot muscles between and around your toes, Dr. Canzanese says. When they’re strong and healthy, these muscles control your arch height, stabilise your toes, and improve your balance and proprioception, or the sense of where your body is in space. But shoes, especially many of today’s highly cushioned running or athletic shoes, do some of that work for you, weakening your intrinsic foot muscles over time.
Not only can this cause foot problems when you switch it up and go barefoot, it can also start to interfere with running and sports or activities that include it. On the flip side, some studies suggest strengthening your feet can reduce your injury risk and even improve your running performance. And while you can do specific strengthening exercises like toe yoga—say, lifting your big toe separately from your other toes or gripping the ground with your feet—spending some dedicated time simply walking around barefoot also fits the bill, Dr. Canzanese says.
For the greatest foot benefits, ease into shoeless time and find the right balance
You wouldn’t go from never lifting weights to picking up the heaviest dumbbell you can find at the gym – similarly, you don’t want to go from never walking barefoot to spending the entire WFH day on your feet, Dr. Canzanese says. In fact, it’s that major shift that led to the many pandemic-era foot injuries that she and Dr. Daughtry both saw.
