From: Jeff Pages
Subject: Do bare feet help prevent colds?
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 19:34:00 -0500

Many years ago when I was an undergraduate student at Sydney
University, I was sitting in the cafeteria with some friends when
I overheard another student say something to the effect that he
never got colds because he went barefoot all winter.

Later, I started noticing that there were a few students who dressed
only in shorts, tee shirts and bare feet right through the winter (of
course winters in Sydney are nothing like what you get in Switzerland,
but I guess everything is relative and they are colder than the
summers :-) ). Then I was at a lecture given by someone who had spent
a year in Antarctica and he was saying that when he came back to
Australia winter in Canberra (which is a lot colder than Sydney) felt
like high summer and they were all in just teeshirts and going
swimming in the lake. It occured to me then that one should be
able to acclimatise to Sydney winters like the scantily-clad students
were doing and do away with shoes, thick shirts, jackets, etc.

Then, about 4 years ago when I was living in Tamworth, on one very
cold and bleak winter morning a kid came to the door selling
stuff for a sporting club. I was wearing shoes, jeans, a thick
sweatshirt and jumper and feeling very cold, and this kid at the
door was barefoot and wearing just shorts and a tank top. I thought,
well, if this kid could do it, so could I.

Since then each year I have tried to avoid overdressing in winter, 
and in the winter just passed I spent practically the whole time 
barefoot in just shorts and tee shirt without feeling at all
uncomfortable or cold.

I still get the occasional head cold, but a lot less often than I
used to when I wore shoes and jumpers in winter, and I haven't had
the flu since I started winter barefooting.

I suspect our bodies have the ability to adapt very well to the
seasonal changes in temperature, but that this ability has been
suppressed by modern living. In all liklihood suppressing this
ability makes us more susceptible to infections. The example I always
give to disbelievers is the fact that Australian Aborigines lived
here for 50,000 years without seeing any need to invent clothing or
footware. There have also been recent media reports of studies showing
children in poorer countries who through necessity wore little clothing
in winter had a much lower incidence of asthma than Australian
children.

Another thought I just had - the people I know who are asthmatic
always dress very heavily whenever the weather is anything but hot.


Hoping no-one gives you shoes or socks for Christmas,

-Jeff