Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.
Science: Health: Foot
Clockwork Plantar Stimulators   (+2, -4)  [vote for, against]
Clockwork powered pressure for plantar pumps

Problem

Plantar venous pumps, a part of a person, provide pumping action to propel blood up the veins of the leg. Pressure from arterial circulation is nowhere near sufficient to drive good venous return from the feet, contributing to many vascular problems such as œdema, DVT and varicose veins.

Most people walk a bit during the day, but not nearly as much as was designed. Blood doesn't get returned well. Bad.

Solution

During whatever walking does take place, a clockwork mechanism gets wound up. This can be done with a standard ratchet mechanism embedded into the base of a shoe.

The mechanism, when running, pushes up a platform under the heel, then releases it. This continues until the spring is unwound. I imagine the same platform is used both for winding via a ratchet mechanism and for the stimulation.

Mechanical details may be a bit fiddly, but the eventual aim is that for some time after sitting down at the desk, your plantar venous pumps will still be running. Perhaps even just a trip to the toilet would be enough to wind them up again for a while.

Batteries not included.
-- vincevincevince, Dec 02 2007

// designed //

Evolved. Edit promptly, lest I bestow a fishbone....
-- 8th of 7, Dec 03 2007


The design/evolution debate seems irrelevant to this idea. Lest the functionality was hidden by the description; this is a device to compress your heel rhythmically in order to keep the blood moving up the veins in your legs.
-- vincevincevince, Dec 07 2007


Hmm. This is one of those ideas that becomes irrelevant if you take into account the cheapness of illegal immigrant labor.

For instance, I have an illegal immigrant attached to each leg with a harness. All day long, they squeeze my legs. They take a break when I am walking.
-- mylodon, Dec 07 2007


// They take a break when I am walking. //

That seems a bit of a waste. Could they not sew together training shoes, or pick fruit or something ? You're not getting full value here ...
-- 8th of 7, Dec 07 2007


I have them sing. I have a set of hymnbooks I rescued from a church in Düsseldorf. They keep these in backpacks, until I get up to walk. It inspires my imagination, and also the percussive hits of my heels refresh the music with modern beat. It's better then meditation.

But they should be resting their arms for the long stretches of massaging required during my sitting-periods.
-- mylodon, Dec 07 2007



random, halfbakery