Can a pair of shoes improve your health?

Can walking around in some strange-looking shoes make your bum shrink by a few inches, or could they cause more problems than they're worth?

They can give you supermodel legs, banish cellulite and improve your posture, so the manufacturers claim. Celebs like Sadie Frost, Cherie Blair and Jodie Kidd apparently love their MBTs, while Pierce Brosnan and Gwyneth Paltrow wear Earth shoes. New shoe on the block Chung Shi, a German product, has Gerry Hall raving. Can these pieces of New Age footwear really do what they say they can, or is it just a load of hype?

MBTs

The Masai barefoot technology (MBT) shoe is Swiss designed and works through a unique patented curved layer sole. With regular use, the body is said to lengthen into a tall, upright posture, therefore releasing pressure in joints and the back, while using neglected muscle groups in the target area of stomach and buttocks.

Do they work? 'Yes,' says Sammy Margo, spokesperson for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists. 'I've been wearing mine for three years and they suit me perfectly. However, they don't work for everyone. For people with hypermobility in their spine, and weak core stability, postural problems could get worse.'

Alex Hazell, a 28-year-old health journalist working in London, agrees that MBTs aren't always the answer. 'I started wearing mine about four years ago,' she says. 'At first I thought they were great, but then my physiotherapist pointed out that I was getting shoulder problems and the shoe was throwing me forward posturally, which wasn't helping. In the end, I ditched them for a properly fitted training shoe.'

Sammy Margo adds: 'You definitely need to be doing a Pilates class or working on your core stability, i.e. strengthening the muscles in your stomach and back to really make the MBTs work for you. You also need to be trained properly in how to wear them, and wearing the shoe has to fit with your lifestyle and overall state of health.'

Research has shown that for most people, wearing MBTs increases the rate their muscles work, and there are plenty of anecdotal case studies of people finding that their joint problems improved dramatically after switching to them. At £129 a pair, however, MBTs aren't a throwaway investment, but their popularity continues to grow.