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(11) | EP 0 211 283 A1 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Footwear automatically performing a massage during the walk |
| (57) Footwear performing an automatic massage during the walk, having a shoe sole (1)
with its inner suface smooth and continuous under the whole foot sole, and which is
provided at its outer side, in the metatarsal area, with a thickness (6,8,9) gradually
decreasing from the edge up to the level of the third metatarsus (51); said thickness
remaining always at the outside of the receptacle for the foot. Said thickness allows a massage of the skin and of the muscles of foot sole in the area of metatarsus of the three centre joints, whereinto many neurosensible and neuroregulator ducts converge, to be obtained on walking. |
[0001] The present invention relates to footwear automatically performing a massage during the walk.
[0002] More particularly, the present invention relates to footwear automatically massaging, during the walk, the inner metatarsal areas of the two user's feet.
[0003] According to the present orthopaedic and shoe-manufacturing art, the modification is performed of some abnormal behaviours in walk, due to anomalous configurations of foot or of pelvic limb, by introducing some inserts between sole and foot. This can be carried out, for instance, by inserting a mechanical arch under the plantar arch, to the purpose of reducing the drawbacks of the so-denominated splay foot, or a support in correspondence of the central side of the plantar arch, to correct cross knee.
[0004] However, not much attention has been paid to the movement of foot inside the footwear when sliding between the rest or lifted position, and the body-supporting or thrust positions. The relative motion between the shoe sole and the foot sole certainly induces considerable phenomena of muscular, blood and lymph circulation, and nervous stimulation.
[0005] In particular, this occurence has already been observed and studied by the chinese medicine very long time ago, on the basis of general observations, which shall be herein recalled, because they lead to the definition of the basic concepts the present invention moves from, which, by the automatic local massage of well-determined foot areas, directly achieved by the purposely made footwear, leads to a non-local improvement in physical conditions of the person wearing such footwear.
[0006] According to the theory of the traditional chinese medicine, the stimulation of some points representative of the channels and meridians of vital energy (bioenergy flux) is able to regulate the function of nerves, to improve blood circulation and to increase the leukocytes reproduction rate; it can thus increase the body's resistance to diseases, favour the blood supply to the organs, purify the tissues, and render more elastic the joints.
[0007] The pathogenetic principle of Yin-Yang theory, nowadays known and spread all over the world, is: "If Yin prevails on Yang, a Yang disease results; if Yang predominates on Yin, a Yin disease ensues".
[0008] The use of massage techniques has a reflex action on innervation, promoting now the excitation and now the inhibition of the processes of nervous system, up to reach a relative equilibrium (e.g.: causing Yin and Yang to balance each other). This leads in its turn to a therapeutical effect. For example, in the presence of cephalalgia or of toothache, by massaging the corresponding "agopunctural point" (body point, by acting on which by either massage or agopuncture, systemic outcomes are achieved) the suppression of pain can be obtained. See, e.g., the Hegu point.
[0009] This occurs because the massage creates a new stimulation point, whch facilitates or inhibits the sensation of pain in the original localization. This phenomenon is called "Pain Displacement Method".
[0010] In the presence of a hypertensive patient, showing such symptons as dizziness or headache (caused - people say - by an excess of Yang in liver), by the massage a transient reduction in blood pressure can be obtained; this occurs because of the peripheral vasodilation, through a reflax nervous action; this type of action is called "Suppression of Hepatic Yang". In the presence of a cold or of influenzal tussis, the pores of skin are blocked and do not allow the transpiration: as a consequence, the body temperature increases, and body tiredness, cephalalgia, discomfort are present; after the massage, the hole organism reacts with the transpiration, and the disappearing of the symptoms occurs. This phenomenon is called: "Help Body Surface". In case of acute urine retention, by massaging the low abdomen and the corresponding agopuncture point (such as Qihai point), the contraction of urinary bladder is stimulated.
[0011] Recently, experimental tests have been carried out, to underline that the stimulation of well-determined points produces such results as above mentioned. For example, the increase of blood supply to the inner organs connected to the corresponding ganglion section is achieved.
[0012] Also tests on the effects of massage on gastric activity have been performed. They show that the stimulation of Weishu, Pishu, Zusanli points increases the gastric activity and ACTH; vice-versa, in those cases in which said activity is already higher than normal, the same method leads to an inhibition thereof. This demonstrates that the use of massage as a regulating means for a function produced different outcomes according to the status of the function it is applied to. By applying these discoveries to the clinics, we obtain: for example, increase of peristalis on patients with intestinal occlusion; vice-versa, the inhibition thereof is observed in spasm-bearing patients.
[0013] The above considerations allow the theory to be introduced of the modification of equilibrium of forces acting on foot; the importance of this latter is well recognized by the traditional chinese medicine, because in foot the origin of six channels, viz. three Yin and and three Yang channels, is identified; the three Yin channels are the channel of spleen, the channel of liver and the channel of rens. The three Yang channels are constituted by the channel of stomach, the channel of gall-bladder and the channel of the urinary bladder. The innervation of such organs branches to the periphery and reaches such organs as hands, feet, iris and ears.
[0014] Hereto attached is the map of left foot and of right foot, Figs. PS and PD respectively, prepared by the Applicant mr. Thomas Wu Tao Ling, wherein the areas are indicated by symbols and full-word definition, from which the individual nerves pertaining to the various organs branch off. Since many years the experimental activity on patients in various Countries over the world, especially in China and United Kingdom, has led to the conclusion that a modification in footwear, causing a massage in the inner metatarsal area, leads to a very positive response (higher than 85%) on the patients it has been administered to.
[0015] The increase in thickness of the outer face of the sole of footwear in correspondence of the outer edge of the foot sole, allows a better support and a higher pressure of the inner edge of the same foot sole. As it can be seen from the map, the inner edge of the foot sole corresponds to the reference points of such various parts of the body as: brain, hypophysis, thyroid, capsules, parathyroid, cervical vertebrae, neck, shoulder, a part of sympathetic and vegetative nervous system. The body pressure exerted on this side of the foot sole is of basic importance, because the organs the indicated points relate to are generally not much stimulated when the traditional footwear is used.
[0016] This problem regards more than 90% of people performing a work activity, both of brain and manual character, for whom obtaining is important, by a simple automatic massage, an improvement in blood circulation and in performance of the other inner organs.
[0017] Also cervical arthrosis, asthenia, and memory decrease are causing distress to many people, and can be fighted by the simple autostimulation of the points situated on the inner side of foot.
[0018] The increase in thickness of footwear sole, by acting from the inside, is an uncomfortable and not much tolerated contrivance: as if the individual were ill, and needed a therapeutical shoe, whilst it does not show any differences relatively to a traditional shoe.
[0019] The shoe of the present invention in characterized, in its general outline, in that its sole has its inner surface, i.e., the surface in contact with foot, smooth and continuous, and is provided with a thickening in its outer metatarsal area.
[0020] Such a shoe, even if it does not show any differences relatively to the traditional shoes, and has the same receptacle, allows the weight of body to be distributed on a larger surface, and the walking to be made easier.
[0021] Futhermore, by the use of the shoe according to the present invention, the same walking causes an automatic massage under the outer metatarsal area; whilst, whenever the individual is not walking, or he is sitting, the stimulation stops, allowing the necessary rest.
[0022] The thickening provided in the outer portion of the shoe sole, which is preferably of the order of 1-10 millimeters, is higher in the outer region, and decreases up to the region of the third metatarus. In this way, the foot, which during the lifting of the step, has abandoned the face of the shoe sole, finds a support in the metatarsal region, on a surface going down from the inside towards the centre with a slope greater than the friction angle between the shod foot and the same shoe sole. Under this conditions, the shoe sole skin, the muscles, the blood vessels and the underlying nerves get compressed and are obliged to slide under pressure: they are hence stimulated by a short massage.
[0023] For this to occur, it is necessary that the face of the shoe sole directed towards the foot does not have discontinuities or roughnesses. It follows therefrom that the thickening, which creates the local increase in level, cannot be provided inside the footwear and that, wheresoever it is positioned, must slope down towards the center, towards the phalanges of the 4th and 5th toe, and towards the cuboid with a slight, flush-beveled slope, so as not to reflect on foot, through the thickness of the shoe sole, any reliefs with short curvature radius, which would hinder the sliding, and would create callosities.
[0024] The increase in thickness of the shoe sole can be obtained by any known means such as, e.g., by the insertion of a longitudinally radiused wedge inside the shoe sole thickness, or between the layers of the soles constituted by two or more layers.
[0025] As an alternative, the increase in thickness can be obtained by applying, by glueing or press-moulding, a layer fastened onto the outer face of the shoe sole, or by creating it directly by the moulding of a thermoplastic resin, or by pouring into a hollow provided in the matrix in the outer metatarsal area towards the basis exposed to the ground, one individual flexible piece having differentiated thickness being obtained.
[0026] In case of shoes with heel, the heel can be of the same height on both sides, or its height can be differentiated.
[0027] In this latter case, on the same side which the sole has been provided with increased thickness, the heel is increased in thickness, preferably by from one fourth to a half of the sole thickness.
[0028] To the purpose of better understanding the structual and functional characteristics of the shoe according to the present invention, the same shall be decribed in detail in the following, with reference to the attached figures, which represent some preferred practical embodiments, which are illustrative and not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
- Fig. 1 represents the plan perspective view of the inner face of the shoe sole with thickening of the present invention;
- Fig. 2A represents the schematic view of a section of the shoe sole Fig. 1, on a plane passing along the path II-II of Fig. 1, wherein the insertion of the thickening inside the thickness of the same shoe sole is shown in the arrangement of foot being not laying to the ground;
- Fig. 2B is the same view as of Fig. 2A, but with the foot being laying on the ground;
Fig. 3A represents the same sectional view as of Fig. 2A, with the thickening being applied onto the outer face of the shoe sole, with the foot being not laying on the ground;
- Fig. 3B is the same view as of Fig. 3A, but with the foot being laying on the ground;
- Fig. 4A represents the same sectional view as of Figs. 2A and 3A, with the thickening being provided by moulding together with the shoe sole, with the foot being not laying on the ground;
-Fig. 4B represents the same view as of Fig. 4A, but with the foot being laying on the ground;
-Fig. 5 represents a view of the left foot sole, with the poition of bones, and with the delimitation of the area to be massaged and of that on which the lifting thickening is to be applied;
- Figs. 6A and 6B represent a view of the sole and back of right foot, with the related thereinto converging musculature and the indication of the area to be massaged and of that onto which the lifting thickening is to be applied.
[0029] Fig. 5 represents a common radiograph of foot, wherein the five segments are shown of metatarus 50, cuneiform bones 51, 52 and 53, scaphoid 55, cuboid 54, astragalus 56 and heel 57.
[0030] At Figs. 6A and 6B the muscle bundles are indicated, respectively shown in top view and in bottom view and in schematic way, which converge to the foot to energize the joints shown at Fig.5.
[0031] On all the figures, which are schematically anatomic, the areas to be automassaged (MA), hatched by alternatively continuous and broken lines, as well as the areas on which the thickness increase of the shoe sole must act (MR), hatched by all continuous lines, are shown.
[0032] The massaging of MA areas is obtained by the provision of the differentiated thickening inside or outside the shoe sole onto which the foot comes to rest; as indicated at Fig. 1. Said figure represents a sole 1 of a whatever footwear, smooth, without discontinuities and free from reliefs with narrow curvature, of course all the curvatures necessary to house the plantar arch or for the heel being present. On said sole 1, the outline of a foot 2 is shown, wherein the scheletric and muscular arrangement is that shown at Figs. 5, 6A and 6B.
[0033] On said sole, by any means a continuous or discontinuous vamp 4, not shown, and indicated at the following figures by a meridian transversal trace only, is applied.
[0034] At Fig. 2A, shown is the sectional view, according to the path plane II-II of Fig.1, of foot 2, represented before the sole 1 being laid on the ground 3. Foot 2 is contained inside the receptacle formed by sole 1 and vamp 4, and in 51 the metatarsal sections are symbolically hatched.
[0035] Before being laid on the ground, foot 2 bears the footwear, and no pressure caused by weight P is applied to sole 1. The latter is provided, according to the present invention, in area MR, defined at Figs. 5, 6A and 6B, with a thereinto-inserted thickening of thickness 6 decreasing towards the third metatarus, and also decreasing in correspondence of the boundaries of the areas towards the phalanges and the cuboid. Said thickening 6 raises the outer face of sole 1 in correspondence of its outer side, exactly in the point 7, wherein the first contact with the ground takes place, with an angle α, with the inner face of the shoe sole remaining horizontal. With the application of weight P, see Fig. 2, angle α decreases gradually to zero, sole 1 is laid on the ground 3 and its inner face is displaced from the horizontal, so that the metatarsal assembly is pushed to the direction of arrow F, with slight sliding, creating a strong pressure in 1st, 2nd and 3rd metatarsus 51, with the epidermis being massaged under pressure during said short sliding. During the subsequent lifting of the foot, and at any times of rest, the foot/shoe sole assembly returns to position shown at Fig. 2A, with a slight return massage.
[0036] At Fig. 3A the same mechanism is reproduced, with the only variant that the thickness 8 is applied onto the outer face of sole 2, always beginning in correspondence of the outer edge, and decreasing up to the area of the third metatarsus. As Fig. 3B, it can be seen how the full laying on the ground 3 under the weight P pushes the foot, and in particular (1st, 2nd and 3rd) metatarsi 51, to slide to the direction of arrow F, and to enjoy the usual massage.
[0037] At Fig. 4A, shown is a further way for achieving the local increase in thickness, thanks to a support 9 made automatically solid with the sole 2, for example by moulding inside the same mould wherein the sole is moulded, with its thickness being gradually emerging from the profile of the matrix.
[0038] In this case too, when the sole 1 is laid on the ground 3, and angle α is decreased to zero, if the sole is flexible, or is laid on the ground to a triangular arrangement, the three central metatarsi are always obliged to slide towards the inner side of the footwear, because the foot slides by being pushed by the outer relief.
[0039] The various methods exposed above for the increase in sole thickness can be usefully applied to shoe sole which are supported by a heel of traditional shape, having the same height on both sides, but are particularly efficacious also if the heel is of different height on its two sides, such a height being increased, on one side, by a value of preferably from one fourth of to a half sole thickness, the greater height being always provided on the outer side, i.e., on the side corresponding to the thickening in the metatarsal area. For certain values of sole stiffness, the fact can be also useful that the angle of conjunction of the heel edge of greater height to the shoe sole be lower than 90°.
1. Footwear performing an automatic massage during the walk having a shoe sole of
variable thickness, characterized in that the sole has its inner surface, viz., its
surface facing towards the foot, smooth and continuous, and has, in its outer metatarsal
area, a thickness higher and protruding relatively to the plane of laying on flat
ground, the overthickness being greater towards the outer edge, and decreasing up
to the area of the third metatarsus.
2. Footwear according to Claim 1, wherein the said thickening of the metatarsal area
is linearly decreasing from the edge up to the third metatarsus in the transversal
direction, and linearly decreasing at its two longitudinal ends towards the phalanges
of the 4th and 5th toe and towards the cuboid.
3. Footwear according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the increase in thickness is constituted
by a longitudinally radiused wedge, and inserted inside the thickness of a single-layer
sole, or between the layers of multi-layer soles.
4. Footwear according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the increase in thickness is obtained
by providing, by glueing or moulding, a layer fastened onto the outer face of the
sole facing towards the ground.
5. Footwear according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the increase in thickness is directly
provided by moulding from thermoplastic resin, or by pouring into a hollow provided
in the matrix of the shoe sole in the outer, ground-facing metatarsal area thereof,
a sole being obtained, which is made as one single piece having a differentiated thickness,
flexible, with its outer surface being not planar under rest conditions.
6. Footwear according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a decreasing overthickness
is applied onto the ground-facing outer face of a rigid sole, said overthickness being
provided from one single machined piece or by moulding.
7. Footwear according to claim 1, wherein said sole is provided with a heel having
different height on its two sides, said height being increased, on one side, by a
value of from one fourth of to a half of sole thickness, with the greater height being
provided on the outer side, provided with the thickening of the metatarsal area.
8. Footwear according to claim 7, wherein the heel, at its outer side of greater height,
is fastened to the sole with its edge forming an angle smaller than 90°.