Original article: Foot Bone Marrow Edema After a 10-wk Transition to Minimalist Running Shoes

Thanks, Ahcuah. Great analysis.

I expressed my concern in a previous post that the researchers did not assess bone density using a DEXA scan. Doing this may have prevented the two stress fractures in the study, by eliminating them (if they had lower bone density).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2600106/

However, I now realize that this assumes that science knows what level of bone density is required for safe running in minshoes. My best guess is that there have not been any studies conducted on the habitually minshod (or barefoot) runners to determine the average bone density.

It would be interesting to find out who has the strongest bones, the habitally shod, minshod, or barefoot.
 
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It would be interesting to find out who has the strongest bones, the habitally shod, minshod, or barefoot.

Oh, there have been studies. Take a look at the two by Trinkhaus I reference in
Did Cavemen Get Athlete’s Foot?

They can tell if ancient people wore shoes by looking at the robustness of the toe bones. The more robust the bones, the more likely they went barefoot. And shoes thereby lead to smaller, weaker bones. (For controls they used a few Indian tribes that go barefoot.)

A similar effect is seen in Rafael Nadal, whose left arm and arm bones are way thicker than his corresponding right ones. All that stress ultimately has the effect of building up the bone quite effectively.
 
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Great articles, Ahcuah. Thank you!

For clarification, the senior author of the titular article is a radiologist. I was wondering if scientific surveys have been performed using modern clinical imaging equipment such as the DEXA scan. This might be helpful in identifying who would be at risk of injury when transitioning.