Happy Anniversary to you, and I wish you many more.  Ups and downs are par for the course in any relationship.  Cheers from sunny Vienna, zilch

6 years, rock on!  Congratulations.  We were employment-challenged ‘round year 6 if I recall, but it turned out ok except that I won’t be able to retire until the Britanny Spears administration.

I use Birkenstock inserts in my shoes.  They’re wierd; ground cork in a latex matrix, they are hard rather than soft but provide great support.

I’m flat footed, I find really old worn out trainers kind of mould around feet, worn out clothes are generally most comfortable, and saves having to buy new ones

It’s the concrete slabs those places are built on. They make special shoes for that environment but they can cost a bit. Ask your family Doc about them, I’m sure he can recommend a good pair.

Oh, and happy anniversary. You must have gotten married around the same time I did, my wife and I celebrated our 6th in March.

Link below will take you to a product that, like religion and chiropractic, one either believes or one does not believe.

http://www.nikken.com/product.cfm?ThemeID=3&GetProductGroup=Magnetic%20Insoles

And speaking of anniversaries, #50 is anticipated in June.

Snake Oil alert.

In the UK ads for magnetic aids don’t even make any specific claim, as they would lay themselves open to teh Advertising Standards Agency complaint.  They are always hedges=d in phrases such as “Many people believe...”, “Believed by some...” etc etc.

Happy 6th Les.
There are times when I think it’d be nice to have someone in the house with me but then I get serious and grin - I’m neither sadistic nor masochistic.

Re feet: I go to a podiatrist every 6 weeks; he has a display of moderately priced shoes. Seeing as how a podiatrist deals with feet maybe he’d be the man to see instead of ‘self-medicating’ and maybe getting it wrong.

Congratulations to you and SEBastardess! :D

If you’re at all able, see if you can have a podiatrist look at your feet and make recommendations about what types of things might help your specific problem? Otherwise, you might just have to put up with lots o’ fruitless searching, which would pretty much suck.

Damn! It looks like LM and I’ve been talking.

Those there magnetic insoles sound like a great idea, if you want to pick up paper clips with your feet.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother…

Pilgrim writes…

Link below will take you to a product that, like religion and chiropractic, one either believes or one does not believe.

And, much like belief in God, there’s no real substance to those magnetic inserts. It’s a topic I’ve written on in the past.

Gee, I dunno, Les.  Think about it; free paper clips! 

Imagine having to abandon the shoes by getting stuck on draincovers and foot bridges, that said, you could take the advantage of walking vertically on certain things but you’s have to be careful with the strain that would put on your ankles. The scary thing would be to drop a box of pins/nails

Happy Anniversary Anne and Les!

Much love from the New Boston Crew!

What do you expect wearing Nikes?  Get yourself some real shoes before it’s too late.  Ask some people who walk for a living and live in a supportive subculture (cops, mail delivery).

Congrats on your anniversary!

And this is what I found for my feet (lots of years standing on them when I taught and too many pounds to haul around): Spira Shoes. http://www.spirafootwear.com There are springs in them and I swear to christ they are worth every last penny I paid for ‘em (read about the physics behind the shoe before your scoff).

I got my pairs cheaper at http://www.planetshoes.com and http://www.overstock.com If you can find them locally, go try ‘em on for sizing and to see how they feel. When I got my first pair, I went from being in agony at the end of an hour of mall crawling to being able to handle several hours on my feet: my feet aren’t screaming and my knees (I have osteoarthritis in my knees) actually function even after a long walk with the dog.

Another thing you could do is go to a really good shoe store that specializes in fitting problem feet and see what they have for over-pronation (flat feet). Even if you can’t afford what they’re selling, you can get an idea of what you need. My flat-footed mailman uncle always had the best results with looser shoes (tight or even snug shoes are very bad for flat feet) and a good arch support.

Good luck ...