As you may know, I’ve been writing these emails for a while now… in fact I just counted and this is the 118th one!
That’s over 2 years of weekly content, all direct from the heart, mind and soul of yours truly. None of it has been AI generated, there have been no guest contributors.
I’ve done my best to keep it real, raw and clinically relevant (and hopefully at least a little entertaining!)
I’ve enjoyed the discipline of it… the regular rhythm forcing me to dig deep into my own life, my clinical experiences and the results of my constant research, study and evolution. It’s almost a meditative process for me.
I appreciate you being a part of it, thank you 🙏
Today we’re going to zoom out a little. Don’t worry, we’ll be talking about factors directly affecting you and your patients in clinic… but first please let me tell you a story…
Recently I’ve been experiencing a challenge.
Better Balance Orthotics, and the Stimulation vs Support Movement have been expanding around the world. More and more people are waking up to the fact that our brains were designed for a certain level of input… one that most people in the modern world never receive.
I love having new people join our tribe.
The difficulty is that everyone comes in with their own level of knowledge, understanding and experience.
Some of you have been with me since the beginning… or you may be reading for the very first time today.
For some I’m like that old uncle… you know the one where you’ve heard all his stories…
But you hang around anyway because he’s kinda fun (and every time you talk, you learn something new.)
For others, we’ve only just met.
I often get questions from newer subscribers with answers that have been covered in detail in previous emails…
But if you weren’t around back then, or you missed that week’s email…
Then you missed out on that crucial piece of knowledge.
And that’s a problem.
I could just clone myself online and have my AI avatar answer all those questions…
But that wouldn’t feel real to me.
And I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t feel real to you either.
So I’ve decided to expand the way I share these emails.
The world needs to hear this message.
The content will still be the same- real, clinically-actionable information from my real-life experience and research, focused on helping you continually achieve better results with the patients you serve (or even in your own health.)
However, the way that message is shared will be radically expanded.
If you’d rather watch a video each week on my YouTube channel… no problem.
Listen to a podcast on your way to work… I’ve got you covered.
Want to share a clip, on Facebook or Instagram, with an interested patient, family member or fellow practitioner… let’s make it easy.
One of the big benefits is that each episode will be archived and available online, so if you ever miss a week…
Or feel you’re not clear on a foundational concept or piece of research… it’ll be available at the click of a button.
For example, over the last 4 weeks we’ve dived deep into the 4 Key Functions of the Foot and how they’re impacting you, your patients and your clinical outcomes every day, in ways you’ve probably never thought about before.
If you’re new and you’d like to catch up on those fundamental understandings, you can find them here:
1/ The first critical foot function… and what it means in practice
2/ The real cause of every acute (and chronic) injury
4/ This one impacts your patients every day
In today’s issue- the very first edition of The Foot-Brain Connection (by the way, I’d love to hear what you think of the name…)
I’d like to share my thinking on 3 Megatrends that I see shaping health, chiropractic and ultimately, our experience of reality.
Each of these is significant in its own right…
But when you understand all 3…
How they interrelate and compound each other…
It creates a whole new understanding of the world… and the vital importance of the Stimulation vs Support paradigm.
(One that goes far beyond just funny-looking orthotics.)
My thinking didn’t start out where it is today. It’s been a gradual evolution.
In the beginning I thought Better Balance Orthotics were just a useful tool for supporting scoliosis (that’s what they were originally designed for.)
But over time I came to realise they were also great for feet, knees and even back pain.
Then my understanding evolved to recognise how they were dramatically improving balance, posture and ultimately the brain.
Today, I think they’re part of an even bigger picture– how we fundamentally experience and relate to our world.
Please let me explain.
We’ll start with Megatrend 1:
Modern Shoes.
The impact (or more correctly- the lack of impact) of modern shoes on our feet and our brains.
You’ve heard me talk about this many times.
But it really is important enough to keep emphasizing.
Humans evolved barefoot.
Over millions of years, we received constant sensory feedback from the ground, through our feet, directly to our brain.
That’s why the smallest, most sensitive nerves in the entire peripheral nervous system are in our feet (and also why stepping on lego sucks so bad!)
Our brains rely on that necessary feedback to correctly set up our posture, our balance, our gait and our movement patterns.
Wearing shoes deprives our brains of that. It’s literally like blindfolding the part of our brain that should receive that feedback and turn it into appropriate motor responses.
The trend towards ever-more-supportive, high-tech shoes has been accelerating for years… but recently it has reached a tipping point.
The latest trendy brand I heard about today is “On Cloud” shoes. Brands like this and Sketchers are competing to create the cushiest, most padded soles in existence.
Whilst the idea of walking on clouds might be cool, and definitely makes for great marketing… it’s literally the opposite of being grounded!
Our brains have no idea how to interpret that squishy cloud under our feet into useful sensory info… and as a result, no idea how to correctly equilibrate our balance, posture or movement patterns.
There’s a Sketchers store near my clinic. Each time I walk past it I see their huge billboard advertising their new, “no-bending-required” slip-on range of shoes.
(I missed getting a picture of their big billboard out front but this in-store poster gives you the idea.)
Whilst I understand that there are some people who genuinely struggle bending to get their shoes on, my concern is this…
The less you bend, the less you are able to bend.
Although we seem to collectively believe otherwise…
We still actually live in a use-it-or-lose-it universe.
I’ve seen research showing that people who move from their home with stairs to a single level dwelling as they age…
Actually age faster.
Some things were never meant to be easy (as my parents loved to remind me!)
Our patients instinctively understand this… they just sometimes need to be reminded. One easy way to remind them is with a few key questions.
One I often use is…
“Do you think we evolved to be barefoot, or to wear shoes?”
No one gets this answer wrong!
I also share the analogy of the back brace…
“If you had back pain, and I told you to wear a back brace every day, do you think your back would get weaker or stronger over time?”
Again, no one gets this wrong.
And with just those two simple questions, you’ve given them a basic understanding of the Stimulation vs Support paradigm.
It’s often a penny-drop moment.
With that being said, let’s move on to Megatrend Number 2:
We are Becoming Blobs.
Did you know that according to our best scientific estimates, the average hunter gatherer walked 6-10 miles per day, seven days a week.
Even more for males… actually 8-12 miles.
And they continued to do this for basically their whole lives.
How many miles have you walked so far today?
(According to my Oura ring I average 9,701 steps per day… not bad by modern standards but it’s definitely not 12 miles!)
You’ve probably heard the saying “Sitting is the new smoking.”
This isn’t news to anyone. We’re sitting more and moving less than ever before.
And it’s killing us.
This trend has been building for decades, but it massively accelerated during the covid pandemic.
Suddenly everyone was working from home. You could sit all day. You could even spend a whole week without setting foot outside your bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
The use of online delivery services exploded.
You can now have basically anything delivered direct to your door, anytime, 7 days a week.
Studies have shown that when it comes to health outcomes, incidental daily movement is more important than regular gym time. That means the short walk from your car to the office. Walking around the shops. Taking the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Stepping out to pick up a coffee.
All those daily movements add up to significant health benefits…
And for many of us, they’ve been all but eliminated from our lives.
Today I find that one of my most frequently asked questions, from both patients and practitioners is this…
“But I don’t really walk anywhere these days… can orthotics still help me?”
This is something I never got asked even just a few years ago.
(By the way, the answer is yes… even if you only wear shoes occasionally, you will still benefit. It’s like going to the gym- you don’t need to go all day every day, even just a few hours a week is still helpful.)
When I looked into the longevity research, regular physical activity trumps everything else, including diet, drugs and supplements.
If you want to live longer, you need to move more.
And most people are going backwards on this metric.
Which means those vital neurons in our brain that crave input from our feet are starving more than ever.
Megatrend 3 is what I call: The Stimulation Mismatch.
Not only are we lacking the essential stimulation we were designed for…
We’re also being over-stimulated… in all the wrong ways.
We live in a hyper-novel world, where our brains are constantly bombarded with sensory information they were never designed for… and have no idea what to do with.
Current estimates are that in 2025 we are exposed to between 4,000 to 10,000 advertising messages every single day, including digital media, TV, billboards, social platforms, apps and other sources.
Many people are widely connected online through social media…
But desperately lacking the type of face-to-face, real-world connections that our brains evolved to require.
We’ve gone from full-length movies…
To YouTube clips…
To shorts and reels.
The average attention span for people online these days is estimated to be 8.25 seconds.
And it’s not just about how we interact in the digital world.
The same is true across basically all domains of life.
On a chemical level, our bodies are more bombarded than ever… with pesticides, food additives, personal care products, microplastics, hormone disruptors…
According to the UN Environment Program’s review of worldwide chemical inventories, there are over 350,000 chemicals registered globally… and this number increases by an estimated 1500-2500 every year.
This is happening electromagnetically as well.
Wifi, 5G, mobile phone radiation… none of these things existed in all the millions of years preceding the last couple of decades.
This multitude of novel inputs impacts our brains (and bodies) in ways we are only beginning to comprehend.
One thing is clear.
The more we provide our brains with the tried-and-trusted inputs it evolved to expect and rely on…
The more it is able to effectively regulate itself.
Things like…
Sunshine.
Clean air.
Frequent movement.
Fresh, organic food.
And constant, varied sensory stimulation through our feet.
Let me share two examples that illustrate this point.
The first is the many children on the spectrum we see in our clinic. These kids turn up with diagnoses like ADHD and autism.
Over the years parents and teachers have often reported that these kids seem calmer and generally do better when they wear Better Balance Orthotics.
I believe this is because they are receiving more normal, natural, neurologically expected stimulus into the brain.
The majority of neuronal output in the brain is inhibitory. That means the more neurons that are firing, the calmer the brain is. That’s why these kids can do better on stimulatory, amphetamine-type medications like Ritalin.
These medications work by increasing stimulation to the brain… which actually calms it down.
Better Balance Orthotics are also increasing the amount of evolutionarily normal input to the brain… without the potential side effects of drugs.
(Of course, I’m not suggesting anyone change their medication… simply observing that Better Balance Orthotics can be a useful addition.)
One particular case really brought this concept home to me. It was a lady who had suffered a pharmaceutical brain injury that left her with photophobia, sound sensitivity and involuntary tics and movements.
The moment she first stood on the orthotics, her whole body went completely still (for the first time since I’d met her) and a huge smile spread over her face.
She said “This feels AMAZING!”
Now I’m not suggesting that the orthotics in any way treated her brain injury…
Just that the increase in normal, expected stimulus turned down the volume on the dysfunctional firing in her brain that had become her daily normal.
None of this is to say that we should avoid the modern world.
My observation is that increasing sensory input through our feet…
Simply by placing a unique device in our shoes and walking on it daily…
Seems to inoculate us against many of the negative, sensory-overloading effects of our environment.
Each of these megatrends is profoundly impactful on our health.
But when they all converge together in the here and now, their impact becomes exponential.
Our feet are less connected to the ground than ever due to our cushy shoes…
We walk less than ever before…
And we are constantly bombarded by unnatural, overwhelming stimuli…
What we need are simple, easy-to-implement strategies that balance our neurology and bring us back into a more natural, connected, human state.
Better Balance Orthotics are not a panacea. It takes more than a shoe insert for our brains to manage all the challenges of modern life.
But they are one of the easiest, most cost-effective and surprisingly powerful life hacks I have found to move us in the right direction.
Please join me in future issues of The Foot-Brain Connection, where we will continue to explore the evidence, real-world cases and healing implications of building healthier brains from the ground up.
(In the meantime, feel free to send me an email… was there anything that resonated with you in today’s inaugural issue of The Foot-Brain Connection? I personally read and respond to every email I receive back.)
Cheers,
Dr Andrew Powell
