Many have described the human body as “a wonderful machine”, and I admit I’ve used that phrase on more than one occasion, but it’s not too hard to find some flaws. The wisdom tooth (and teeth in general) is usually the most cited example, but today we found a very interesting case: the human foot. A source of injuries and pain, and responsible for other problems in the body, the human foot seems to be a design disaster. How did we get here?
The Bipedal Trade-off
Bipedalism (or bipedal stance, if you prefer) was a decisive change in human evolution. Darwin suggested at the time that humans began to walk upright and “freed their hands” to create tools, but science confirmed that bipedalism predates the oldest discovered tools by more than a million and a half years.
https://old.neoteo.com/lo-que-sucedera-en-tu-cuerpo-en-el-proximo-minuto/
The Foot Under Scrutiny
The benefits of bipedalism are very important, though it wasn’t free of compromises. On one hand, it required several adjustments in our anatomy, from the connection of the skull and spine to the angle of the femur. And on the other, some experts believe it caused design problems. Where? In the human foot. At first glance, our feet are stable and flexible, however, this video published by the Cheddar channel on YouTube explores the human foot from a not-so-favorable position...
The video begins by comparing the organic foot with the high-performance prosthetic foot used by athletes around the world... essentially, a “J” made of carbon fiber. Historically, plantar fasciitis (pain in the sole of the foot) has been linked to inadequate footwear, poor posture, overworking the region, and excessive pronation, but its structure doesn’t help us much.
The anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva of Dartmouth University explains that some fossils show evidence of osteoarthritis, compression fractures, and fallen (or collapsed) arches, meaning foot pain has accompanied us for millions of years. In his own words, DeSilva describes the human foot as “office clips and duct tape”.
Evolutionary Footprints
Let’s travel to the past for a moment: Our ancestors spent most of their time in trees, and their feet were more “optimized” for climbing and grasping branches. Four million years ago, bipedalism manifested, and scientists don’t know exactly why. Maybe it was a response to the advance of hunting and gathering, covering greater distances and chasing prey for longer.
The human foot needs to be rigid to aid in propulsion, and elastic to store the mechanical energy generated each time it touches the ground. How did it achieve that balance? With 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The hallux (big toe) became shorter and stiffer, we acquired arches to absorb impact force, and the ligaments gained thickness. What are examples of a “good foot”? DeSilva points in the direction of the ostrich. After all, its inherited bipedalism has more than 200 million years.
https://old.neoteo.com/alice-2-0-el-cuerpo-humano-optimizado-es-una-verdadera-pesadilla/
