Please Donate to Help My Son and Other Kids with Neurological Disorders

For the second year in a row, I'm running the Hospital Hill Run half marathon BAREFOOT to raise money on behalf of my son, Benjamin, for the Joshua Center for Neurological Disorders. That's 13.1 miles without shoes for a kiddo that means the world to me!

Our son Benjamin lives with a few neurological disorders, including Tourette's, ADHD, and OCD. He's a GREAT kid -- as you can see from the picture -- but he rarely gets to spend time with other kids who "get" what he lives with and who won't make fun of him for his tics and quirks.

At Joshua Center's camp each year, Benjamin CAN spend a few days with others who live with the same struggles he lives with. He makes new friends and remembers that there are others like him who won't judge him -- all while having a ton of fun!

Benjamin was able to go to the Joshua Center's camp on a scholarship last year thanks to the generous support of people like you!

Please click the "Donate Now" button at the top right corner of this blog or visit my fundraising page by clicking this link to help us help kids like Benjamin. THANK YOU!

Thoughts on a Podiatrist's Facebook Post

This week I was taken aback by a post that a podiatrist put on Facebook and subsequently tweeted:

Post by Hai-En Peng, DPM.

What I find most shocking is that every single one of those ailments certainly happened because shoes caused those pathologies in the feet.

Dr. Steve Bloor, barefooter and podiatrist in the UK, has said on a number of occasions that he thinks a significant amount of foot pathology is caused or exacerbated by shoes.

Yet podiatrists often recommend that people never go barefoot. They claim that feet need support, bare feet will acquire athlete's foot or nail fungus, and unprotected feet are simply at too great a risk of injury.

I don't have a problem with podiatrists and their profession. I think they serve an important purpose, but how about we, as a society, give our own bare feet a chance to be strong and flexible on their own. If injury occurs, then podiatrists can help us get back on our own two (bare) feet.

Dr. Bloor, told me in an interview a few years ago that, "I now believe the foot is well designed for supporting itself and the rest of the body if it is given a chance to do so without being hindered by footwear."

The answer to foot problems like bunions, neuromas, hammer toes, and the like is not fixing them, then putting those feet back into shoes. As the Barefoot Alliance says, "Barefoot is human." Constant shoe use is not a characteristic of how we are made to function.