My name is Claudio Carvalho.

I'm an Osteopathic Physician specialized in physical medicine and

rehabilitation. I largely care for patients with musculoskeletal and joint pains from injuries or degenerative diseases such as arthritis.

I have used the Beach Sandal with patients with painful feet with very good results. The patients reported that the sandals allowed them to walk and stand with less pain.

Although this information is purely anecdotal, I observed the walking behaviour of persons while wearing the Beach Sandals and I noticed that the toe spacers assist the toes to spread with weight bearing during static standing and during rolling-over phase while walking. This "toe spreading" is a normal and necessary part of the foot mechanics, which is lost when one wears closed-toe-box shoes. Thus, the toe spacers may assist the distribution of the force loads over the metatarsophlangeal joints, and it may re-educate the neuromuscular system to better stabilize those joints.

This, in turn, helps to decrease pain in those joints, and it can also decrease pain in the others joints of the feet.

Most importantly however, is the correct selection of the patients that may benefit from these sandals and the gradual wearing time of the sandal (30 min- 1 hour in the first couple of days, then increasing by 1 hour every 2-3 days) if one has painful feet.

I hope this information helps.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Claudio M. Carvalho, DO, MS