Posted on 03/28/2005 2:04:51 PM PST by pissant
If you're a high-heel kind of a girl, we bet you're slipping on those spiky heels or platform pumps because you like the way they make your calves and clothes look, plus, hey, guys dig them.
Women know high heels aren't good for their feet, and they don't deny that they're uncomfortable. In fact, a Gallup Poll found that 37 percent of women surveyed said they would continue to wear high heels, even though they did not think them comfortable. Mark it up to the price of beauty.
Feet aren't made for heels
Despite what you're willing to tolerate as a lover of heels, you may be underestimating the damage that high heels can cause, beyond just having sore feet at the end of the day.
Not surprisingly, doctors of podiatric medicine (foot doctors) see no value in high heels, which they generally define as pumps with heels of more than two inches.
You know those lovely curves you get with high heels? "It's not a normal anatomical position," says Teisha Chiarelli, a podiatrist in Glendale, Ariz.
Podiatrists say high heels are "biomechanically and orthopedically unsound," citing medical, postural and safety faults of such heels, according to the American Podiatric Medical Association. Among the litany of problems to which stilettos and their sister heels contribute are knee and back problems, disabling injuries in falls and shortened calf muscles, not to mention an awkward, unnatural gait.
Heels force the thigh muscles to work harder, putting extra strain on the knee joint and tendon that runs from the kneecap to the thighbone. Compared with walking barefoot, high heels increase the pressure on the inside of the knee by 26 percent. Over time, this increased pressure on the knee can lead to osteoarthritis.
Uncovering women's footwear problems
While most high-heel fans aren't so willing to totally abandon their high pumps, a recent survey indicates that many might be willing to make some adjustments - to a point.
In an online survey by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 80 percent of the women respondents said their feet hurt, and nearly 60 percent of them 'fessed up to wearing uncomfortable shoes for at least an hour a day. The good news, though, is that 85 percent of the women with aching feet said that they had changed the kind of shoes they wear or wear them less often.
The survey, which involved 1,724 women, also revealed that:
'Work' or 'style' are the reasons why women wear uncomfortable shoes. Calluses and heel pain were the top shoe-related foot ailments. Women also complain about such conditions as bunions, swelling of the joint at the base of the big toe; hammertoes, a permanent bend in the middle joint of a toe; neuromas, nerve problems that cause shooting pain into the toes; ingrown toenails; and even stress fractures. Chiarelli says high heels are a particular cause of concern.
"I've got elderly women come in who swear they've worn high heel shoes all their lives and say they can't wear a flat shoe. They get a physiologically shorter Achilles tendon. Over a period of time, we accommodate that position," she says.
Typically, Chiarelli says feet swell throughout the day and poorly fitting shoes won't accommodate that swelling. Sometimes the pain is achy, "almost a bone bruising," she says, or a sharp pain between the bones in the ball of the foot.
"We're looking at bony problems where the toes are starting to curl up from being in a narrow or pointed toe box," she says. "Probably the patient with the ugliest feet is a dancer because she's wearing toe shoes or high heels for dancing."
"Bony problems" are such a big part of foot problems that podiatrists even have a high-heel nickname for one condition - a pump bump. "It's a big old bump on the back of your heel," Chiarelli says. "It's like a callus of bone on the back of the heel from the shoe rubbing the bone."
Nail problems also are common from the constant pressure of toes being pressed against the end of the shoe. That can cause the nail to thicken and promote the growth of foul-smelling fungus. Plus, if a person has curved toenails, it can induce or exacerbate painful in-grown nails.
Changing your heel habits
If you just can't imagine life without heels, Chiarelli suggests choosing styles with squared-off toes and shorter, chunkier heels instead of stilettos.
However, it should be noted that a Harvard University study published in the medical journal The Lancet found that wide-heeled shoes cause problems, too.
Researchers found that while women who wore stick-thin heels were more likely to develop problems in their feet, including tendinitis and bone deformities, women who pulled on thick heels were as prone to develop serious and potentially debilitating knee problems.
"They are better for your feet than stiletto heels but just as bad for your knees," Casey Kerrigan, lead researcher of the Harvard study, says about wider-heeled shoes.
If a wide-heeled shoe isn't you anyway, then follow some of Chiarelli's other tips for female shoe shoppers:
Look for thicker soles for absorbing shock better and putting less pressure on the foot as well as an upper material, such as leather or microfiber, that will give a little to allow the foot to swell without pinching. "Those will still look nice and not hurt so badly," she says. If you simply must wear high heels, then limit the time you wear them. Wearing flatter shoes or tennis shoes for walking long distances, such as to and from the office, and then changing into your heels once you get to work. Give your feet a nice massage or soak them in lukewarm water at the end of the day. "If your foot has been put in that funny position all day, it feels like it's stuck that way," Chiarelli says. "Treat yourself." If you want to want to be good to your feet, then consider following the American Podiatric Medical Association's recommendation on "perhaps the best shoe you can buy from an orthopedic point of view" - a walking shoe with ties (not a slip-on), a Vibram-type composition sole, and a relatively wider heel, no more than a half or three-quarters of an inch in height.
Dull, yes, but safe.
Heh, no, 21 and single! But being able to walk, not not tripping over my feet every minute, is worth more than looking good.
Well, I stand corrected! Thanks
Feeing a little snarky today, are we?
You're a 21-year-old single woman in a CS department. You can get any man you want if he just hears your high-pitched voice! You never have to look good if you don't want to.
Heh, well, I like to look nice but I don't ever want to wear heels. Impractical things, anyway. You can't move in them - don't guys get annoyed about having to wait while their wife/girlfriend totters along at half a mile an hour?
Well, I'm a mathematician, so I don't remember. But I think this is what dropping her off at the door is supposed to be all about. It's all fuzzy, though.
But you can never leave.
I can dance all night and run in Hi Heels. Just gotta buy the right size or maybe just get use to it....
I'll pass.
But I can attest that the same is true for Hi Tops.
Amen. From Hotel Kullifornia.....
Everything I ever needed to know, I learned from the Eagles.
I don't really date (I want a geek but all the ones I know are liberal agnostics, big turn off) but I'd think guys would find them annoying. Anyway my legs aren't my best feature and I wouldn't want anyone staring at them.
Hi Heels, I literally cannot wear any shoe with more than about a two-inch heel, and that's stretching things. I had a pair of boots I wore once, but after half an hour I got hideous cramps in my feet. I have trouble with a lot of shoes, though, I have to buy really good sneakers because of my flat feet. Don't think I don't wish I could just wear anything! Oh well. It saves room in my closet to only have four pairs of shoes.
My above the knee, faux snakeskin 5" spike heel boots are callin' me!
Then you haven't gone for true true geekiness. The true geeks are too shy to speak to you. You only know half-geeks. You have much to learn, young Padawan. There are plenty of faithful geeks who gave up a long time ago.
Now finding one without a foot-fetish is a bit harder. :)
Damn it, now I'm gonna have dreams about that!
BTW, I think women look great in heels, but I also think they look great bare foot. I also think they look great in sandles. When I was a kid, there was a girl that sat next to me in English named Brenda, and she made penny loafers look great. I also like girls in sneakers. Or just wearing stockings. Maybe with a man's dress shirt on. and stockings. Nothing else. Girls look great in tight jeans and cowboy boots, too. Or just cowboy boots. I'm not particular.
Yep, as long as they have a perfect set of legs: Feet on one end and a **** on the other!
;-)
Problem is, I'm a true geek so I'm too shy to talk to them, too.
You maybe can dance and run in high heels but I will never forget the scene of women tottering across the bridge from Manhattan on September 11. Their shoes were ridiculously inappropriate for walking, let alone running. I have to wonder if any didn't make it because of their shoes. And of course there were a lot of women running without shoes at all, trying to stay ahead of the debris cloud. I am not making light of the disaster but it really struck me how poorly women's shoes are designed. I can't look at these fancy party shoes without thinking of 9-11 now.
Well, being female, you cannot be a true geek. I am sorry. It's The Rules. And maybe you shouldn't talk to them. They might run away, like rabbits.
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