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.
My mother-in-law, now 89, cannot comfortably wear flat shoes because she wore high heels for over 60 years. She also falls down alot now because she can't walk properly barefoot or in flat 'old lady shoes'. She also has ugly thick toe nails; now I know they are from her years of wearing high heels.
All you men who are fan of heels, think about what you are condemning your women to in their later years.
I do not now will ever own this type of shoe. BUT for those "comfy women" who do not like Hi Heels, this item will be worn with all costuming from lingerie to ball gowns. Thus leaving, and rightly so, the rest of the Hi Heel supply to those of us who would like our feet to look better than say, oh, Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law's do......
Thanks for asking....
Wow!! That could be a photo of my mother-in-law's foot!
I KNEW I could count on you!!! Thanks
I like your attitude!
Well, you are asking for it if you wear them all day. But yes, I have done that, too. But who in the heck wants to wear flats! Ick.
Even if they look nice, I can only picture what one of those sharp heels would do to a little toddler foot. My baby is always hanging onto or hovering near my legs. No way. Beauty is not worth the risk.
High Heel ping.
LOL! I love heels. I might feel differently if I had to wear them all day, every day, but since I don't... heh heh.
My loafers or just sock feet during the day, and then I turn up the wattage when Mr. Ex gets home...change clothes to include the shoes. He appreciates the effort (LOL) and it helps me shift out of "mommy mode".
*big grin*
Advice to Yaelle, take off pumps when around children!!!
Then again, if some guy is giving you the "business" in a bar, you can always accidently remove one of his toes!
Mr. Ex is a lucky feller.....
I'll pass that along....
Now those are just ugly. Looks like something from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The one pair of heels I still own are these, in red. I don't remember why I bought them, but I can't bring myself to throw them out without wearing them somewhere at least once...Problem is, there's nowhere to go in them.
Uhhh, I'm sure that we fellers can think of a couple appropriate places to wear those.....
very cute, spodefly, very cute...
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