"Benno M. Nigg has become a leading researcher on orthotics - those shoe inserts that many athletes use to try to prevent injuries. And what he has found is not very reassuring.
For more than 30 years Dr. Nigg, a professor of biomechanics and co-director of the Human Performance Lab at the University of Calgary in Alberta, has asked how orthotics affect motion, stress on joints and muscle activity.
Do they help or harm athletes who use them? And is the huge orthotics industry - from customized shoe inserts costing hundreds of dollars to over-the-counter ones sold at every drugstore - based on science or on wishful thinking? "