Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 64

By ERIC J. WALLACE | Photos courtesy OESH

BAD THINGS CAN BEGIN AT THE FEET

SHOE FACTOR
THE

Dr. Casey Kerrigan was a tenured professor at the University of Virginia.
She quit to pursue her dream of revolutionizing women's footwear.

C

Casey Kerrigan: "When you see something wrong with the world
and it's in your power to change it, that's what you need to do."
INSET: Kerrigan characterizes OESH shoes as, "the only shoes
on the planet that are designed to work according to and with our
body's natural biomechanics."

64

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

asey Kerrigan has always pushed herself to go above
and beyond. As a University of Chicago track prodigy,
she broke school records. Seeking to become a doctor,
she attended Harvard Medical School-which has an
acceptance rate of 3.7%.
Studying kinesiology at the University of California
Los Angeles, her medical and athletic interests merged:
Older women were developing osteoarthritis of the knee at more
than double the rate of men; Kerrigan wanted to know why.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, the condition is
caused by degenerating cartilage and leads to more demobilization among elderly American women than any other single
disease. In turn, limited mobility increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, and has been linked to
anxiety and depression.
"If you get arthritis in your knees," warns Kerrigan, "it's a
downward spiral from there."
Aghast, she returned to Harvard
to found one of the world's first 3D
gait and motion laboratories. There,
she made an astonishing discovery:
Poorly designed footwear was at
fault.
"It turned out none of the big
shoe companies had studied the effects of forces above the foot," says
Kerrigan. "What's happening to the
ankles, knees, hips-that's what really matters. But their research was
limited to the foot itself."
Kerrigan and her team showed that wearing wide, so-called
comfortable heels boosted knee-torsion by more than 23%
when compared to walking barefoot. Stilettos were much worse.
Even Stride Rites and running shoes brought negative effects.
Over time, the increased strain was destroying women's knees.
The findings were released in a scientific paper in 1998. It led
to appearances on ABC's 20/20 and feature articles in prestigious
periodicals like Time Magazine, Newsweek, and the New York
Times.


http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 3
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 4
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 5
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 6
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 7
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 8
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 9
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 10
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 11
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 12
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 13
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 17
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 18
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 26
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 27
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 28
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 29
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 30
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 31
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 32
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 33
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 34
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 35
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 36
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 37
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 38
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 39
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 40
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 41
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 42
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 58
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 60
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 61
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 62
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 63
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 64
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 65
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 66
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 67
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 69
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 70
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 71
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 72
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 73
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 74
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - Cover4
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