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CMT and minimalist shoes

Long time no blog!

I felt compelled to write a new blog entry as I have had a small revelation in my life with respect to shoes. Now you might be thinking 'Shoes? what is so special that it can be classed as a revelation?'. Well over 10 years ago I was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (generally known as CMT). This is a degenerative nerve disorder that damages the peripheral nerves, which can lead to problems with feet / legs, hands, and in some sever cases breathing.

Now I am lucky, I have a relatively mild case of CMT, where my hands are generally unaffected (save for a little loss in sensation), it is my legs and feet that don't fare quite as well. I have considerable loss of sensation in both feet (from the mid foot forwards I can't feel too much), and loss of muscle in the lower legs. This makes walking somewhat more challenging and tiring, with increased possibility of tripping up (balance is not something I take for granted!). It also means that my feet are not normal shaped, they are rather wide due to muscle wastage. This has meant that buying shoes is a challenge, most shoes are narrow and I simply can't wear them. To top it all off my right foot is a full size smaller than my left, which compounds the issue as the widest part of my right foot is in the narrowest part of a shoe - due to needing to buy the larger size for my left. Shoes shopping has never been fun!

That all changed when I discovered minimalist shoes from Xero Shoes....

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