A new study has revealed that running barefoot might just end up reducing stress on the runner's feet, while also preventing injuries which are generally known to afflict shod runners.

Through the new study, researchers used high-speed video and a bathroom scale-like gadget, known as a force plate, to digitally study the "moment-by-moment stresses on the feet" of as many as 63 runners while they ran barefoot.

Running barefoot, the research has shown manages to change the way a person's feet hit the surface.

"This form of landing causes almost no collision force. Humans were able to run for millions of years without shoes or in just sandals", said lead author Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University.

Details of the study have been published in the journal Nature.