2024-06-04
Foot Stimulation: What are the Benefits of Barefoot Walking?
Barefoot walking stimulates foot muscles and nerves, improves circulation, and, according to traditional medicine, enhances organ function. Forest barefoot walking offers additional benefits like stress reduction, improved mood, and overall well-being.
Foot Stimulation: What are the Benefits of Barefoot Walking?
Recently, not only hiking trails like 'Dulle-gil' but also dedicated ‘red clay paths’ for barefoot walking have been increasingly created, making convenient barefoot walking possible.
According to experts, barefoot walking has the effect of developing foot muscles and nerve sensations that are not stimulated when walking with shoes. When walking barefoot, you exert more force with your toes and use your ankle and calf muscles more, which helps blood return to the heart, thereby reducing the burden on the heart.
Furthermore, in traditional Korean medicine, acupressure points connected to various organs of the body are concentrated on the soles of the feet. It is said that appropriate stimulation increases blood flow around the organs and can improve deficient organ functions. In other words, you can fully absorb the energy of nature through your feet, and the meridians of your feet are stimulated.
Looking at a few more aspects, barefoot walking in the forest offers forest therapy, which not only revitalizes the mind and body and relieves stress but also has effects on various physical and mental ailments such as depression, high blood pressure, atopic dermatitis, attention deficit, and 'Hwabyung' (anger syndrome)!
A lush green forest, with its phytoncides, negative ions, and oxygen, along with inhaled substances, scenery, sounds, sunlight, and water, exerts comprehensive functions through various elements to achieve mental and physical stability and disease healing.
Just looking at a beautiful forest is effective for mental and physical stability, and the higher the 'green view ratio' (녹시율), the greater the emotional stability.
Natural sounds such as wind, rustling leaves, and flowing water provide comfort and relaxation. Indirect sunlight, filtered by leaves, helps synthesize vitamin D while avoiding harmful UV rays, and promotes the secretion of serotonin, giving vitality and vigor.
In addition, one experiment involving 27 patients with depression who underwent 4 weeks of forest therapy showed significant improvement in their depressive state and enhanced quality of life. Another program that applied 3 days of forest therapy to 32 social enterprise workers resulted in a significant reduction in stress levels, which are a cause of various diseases.
Source: Kormedi.com