Dr. Emily Spichal, a functional podiatrist and human movement specialist, discusses the importance of foot health and the role of functional medicine and movement in podiatry. She shares her journey into this field and the development of her sensory-based product line, Naboso.

Dr. Emily emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to foot health and the impact of footwear on foot function. She also explores the connection between foot posture, movement patterns, and overall body alignment, as well as the importance of foot health and its impact on overall posture and movement.

She explains the benefits of using toe spacers to reset the feet and improve conditions such as bunions, hammer toes, and plantar fasciitis. Dr. Emily also emphasizes the role of sensory perception in foot movement and the importance of reconnecting with the sensory side of ourselves.

Her new book is called Sensory Sapiens, which explores how modern movement is aging us and the need to prioritize movement longevity. She advises releasing the feet daily to reduce foot stress and pain.

Connect with Dr. Splichal at her website and if you check out Naboso products here, use code HEALNOURISHGROW for 10 percent off. Kineon red light therapy for body pain was the other tool mentioned in this episode.

After chatting with Dr. Emily, I bought the toe spacers as well as the sensory ball, I’m obsessed!

Takeaways

• Foot health is an important aspect of overall well-being, and a holistic approach that considers factors like movement, stress, sleep, and diet is crucial.


• Functional podiatry focuses on treating feet in an integrated way, considering complex human movement and the sensory side of the foot.


• Footwear trends, such as the current maximalist shoe trend, can impact foot function and movement accuracy.


• Understanding foot posture and its effect on body alignment is essential for addressing movement patterns and preventing injuries.


• Setting a stable base by activating the foot tripod, externally rotating the hips, and connecting with the toes can improve foot function and overall body alignment.


• Toe spacers are an effective tool for resetting the feet and improving conditions such as bunions, hammer toes, and plantar fasciitis.


• Sensory perception plays a crucial role in foot movement and overall posture.


• Reconnecting with the sensory side of ourselves can unlock proper movement and support longevity.


• Dr. Emily’s upcoming book, ‘Sensory Sapiens,’ explores how modern movement is aging us and the importance of prioritizing movement longevity.


• Releasing the feet daily can reduce foot stress and pain.

Watch on YouTube:

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Show Transcript:

Cheryl McColgan (00:01 .026)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Here and Learn, Grow podcast. Today, I’m already tongue twisting myself, because I’m already thinking about Dr. Emily’s name, it’s Dr. Emily Slickle. And we were just chatting before the podcast, I was hoping not to butcher that, but I think I got it right. So Dr. Emily, welcome. I am so excited to chat with you today about all things foot, because we have not had that subject on the podcast yet. And I think…

what you’re doing with the way that you treat people virtually and the products that you have brought to market to really help people with their foot health is pretty incredible. So all that being said, I would love for you to just kind of introduce yourself and tell us how you got into this line of work.

Dr Emily (00:39 .508)
Of course, well, thank you for having me on Dr. Emily. I am a functional podiatrist. that’s, to me, that’s very important to have that distinction. So that means that I treat feet, but I treat feet in a very integrated way. think very much about complex human movement, but also stress, sleep, inflammation, diets, how do people breathe? So a lot of stuff that I bring into it, almost like functional medicine, functional movement into my podiatry.

Cheryl McColgan (00:43 .031)
Hey.

Dr Emily (01:08 .576)
And then I’m also a human movement specialist where I focus primarily out of my practice on chronic patients. Maybe it’s chronic pain, chronic movement disorders, chronic movement dysfunction. And I’m trying to look at them from an outside of the box perspective. I teach people how to empower themselves by understanding their body and how they move and their feet. And then finally, in addition to that, I’m the founder of Noboso, which is a sensory based product line.

I’m very much into the sensory side of the foot versus thinking of it very biomechanical. I’m fascinated on how our feet are the gateway into our brain and that’s how we control our movements. And then my final passion is movement longevity.

Cheryl McColgan (01:51 .564)
I love that you just covered all of that because everybody that hears that is gonna know exactly why I wanted to have you on, because I love having people on that really take a whole body perspective and a functional perspective, because I think so much of medicine, as you well know these days, is putting a bandaid on something without getting to the root cause. And I think it’s really amazing what you’ve done to try to promote this idea of a very holistic.

thing with your feet because there’s something that are so important to us and you usually don’t think about them too much and still you have a problem with them, right? So you mentioned your functional products. I’m guessing that this became kind of a thing because you kept seeing people and were maybe seeing some consistent issues that you were thinking, how can I better help these people? And maybe it’s like a little tool or something to help get their foot stronger or

Dr Emily (02:23 .19)
Not like yes.

Cheryl McColgan (02:44 .406)
you know, all those sorts of things. I’m guessing you were just seeing a lack in the market. So I’d love if you could just talk about what you were seeing in your practice that then led you to produce these certain tools and products that you have now.

Dr Emily (02:57 .588)
Absolutely. So I will share first, let me find what I can show you. So this is an example of the texture. So all of the products at Noboso, which is my products company, features this texture to stimulate the nerves in the bottom of the feet. And we have a patent around the texture. Now, what I was

Starting to see a really avoid in the market. This was back in 2008, nine, 10. If you remember the barefoot running boom and the five finger shoes and that whole time is that it was bringing an awareness to the feet, to foot health, to movement and how the shoes that we wear might actually be doing more harm than good. That there’s a lot of cushion, lot of structure that just naturally our feet probably don’t need. So people were moving more minimal.

Cheryl McColgan (03:26 .808)
Yes.

Dr Emily (03:49 .442)
which is great. Similar around that whole thing is that people then started also saying like, what if I take my shoes off entirely and I work out barefoot, I run barefoot, I go around my house and there’s just this attention around the bare foot. One thing I didn’t mention in the beginning is that I’ve been in the fitness industry for over 23 years. So being intertwined in…

coaching and athletic training and strength and conditioning. That’s another big part of what I was doing. So I would speak and educate about the feet, minimal shoes, getting out of your shoes. And then I started to realize, well, that’s not the end of the story. It’s not just if we take off our shoes, therefore we are optimizing the sensory side of the human foot. There’s more because there’s special nerves in the bottom of the feet.

that are sensitive to very specific stimuli and texture. This is actually two point discrimination. Texture is like a consumer word, but it’s two point discrimination like braille. There’s a very specific nerve in the bottom of their feet that reads two point discrimination. So I started to get into research of that. One of the other nerves in the bottom of the feet is sensitive to vibration. So I started to get into vibration and really understanding how do we target these nerves

to get a little bit more out of our foot function besides just take off your shoes and that’s all you need to do. And now you’re optimizing your foot activation, awareness, strength, circulation. How do we get even further into that? And that’s really what led to Noboso and then just my specialty in the neurosensory side of the foot.

Cheryl McColgan (05:29 .816)
That’s so interesting. So I’ve never heard about those specific receptors in the bottom of the foot that you described. So that’s really cool. And for those of you that were listening and not watching on video, she was holding up a yellow cylinder that you could basically like put under your foot to kind of, I’m guessing, like roll back and forth on it. But before we move on with the technology, because I know you have some other things and I want to get into that part where you talked about the vibration, but you mentioned shoes and I have to go there because I was a runner for 17 years and the shoes kept getting more and more.

And this is what we thought before I read, you you mentioned the book, The Barefoot Running, that was such a great book. I’ll put a link for that in the show notes, because I think even if you do