8/30/2023 0 Comments Anemona hartocollis schizophreniaRyan Community Health Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said she hated to be a spoilsport, but nonetheless recommended that her patients wear shoes outdoors. Jessica Sessions, a pediatrician at the William F. And when you do get your feet wet, thoroughly dry them before putting your shoes back on.”ĭr. “I think the best thing to do is to wear sandals or flip-flops or to just not get your feet wet. “It resides in the grass and earth, you pick it up and it festers in your shoes,” Dr. The right conditions can be found in many manicured city parks, he said, where the grass is moist and shaded, well-watered by automatic sprinkler systems, and well-trampled by thousands of feet, shod and unshod, human and animal, carrying countless infectious organisms. Militello said, “and you need to give them the right conditions to infect you.” “These organisms are found in the common environment,” Dr. People could be vulnerable to infection from three main types of organism from going barefoot in the grass, he said, including pseudomonas bacteria, the type of fungus that causes athlete’s foot, and the virus that causes plantar warts. Giuseppe Militello, an assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Columbia University. But getting wet feet by walking barefoot in damp grass can damage the skin’s natural barrier, allowing infections to take hold, said Dr. In general, people with cuts or cracks on their feet or people with compromised immune systems are more likely to pick up an infection from walking barefoot. “You’re in tune with Mother Nature.”īut, the experts say, it is the grass in many city parks, so innocent-looking, so tempting, so redolent of the free-spirited days of childhood, that may pose the most unexpected risks, because unlike a rusty nail, they are invisible to the naked eye.īacteria are everywhere, from the sidewalks to the subway, and normally, the skin forms a fairly good barrier to infection, doctors said. “You take off your shoes, it’s the best,” said Ms. “But when you go barefoot, you are exposing yourself beyond what you really need to.”ĭon’t tell Thao Le, a business development coordinator who, if not for a drizzle, might have been among the regulars going shoeless in the emerald green of Bryant Park in Midtown the other day. Judith Hellman, a Manhattan dermatologist and assistant professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “When something doesn’t happen to you, you don’t consider yourself lucky,” said Dr. They range from the obvious, like contracting tetanus from stepping on a rusty nail, to the invisible, like developing athlete’s foot from walking in wet grass. Neither New York’s health department nor the parks department has any rules against going barefoot on the city’s streets or in its parks, officials said.īut while many doctors say there is nothing wrong with walking barefoot in New York, some see small but definite risks. Neil Simon wrote a play about it, and Robert Redford and Jane Fonda starred in the movie.Īs sun blankets the city, many people hardly think twice before shedding their inhibitions - and their shoes. People have walked barefoot in the grass for thousands of years, and barefoot in New York City’s parks at least since the days of Olmsted and Vaux. The article talks about specific health hazards and also touches on why it might be worth the risk. Another interesting article about going barefoot in New York City parks.
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