Women like to wear high heels in their normal routine. They help them to look tall. Heels have become a beauty symbol in our society. Undoubtedly they look great and enhance the outlook of personality. But excessive or prolonged use of heels is also harmful to the muscles and bones of the body. In this blog post, we are presenting you with various issues of using high heels. In last, we have made recommendations on selecting appropriate footwear to avoid these issues.
Issues with the use of high heels:
High heels disturb the normal posture and weight distribution among muscles and resultantly women face numerous muscular and bony issues. Most of the issues women complain about include plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, arthritis, and LBP. In general, doctors agree that high heels equate to high price for health and fitness. Below, we have discussed these issues in detail.
1. Muscular stiffness and tightness:
The adoption of poor posture and imbalance of the body puts the muscles in a shortened position. For example, the plantar flexion of the ankles due to high heels causes the tightness of the calf muscles. Hip flexors also get tight and short, which can result in hip pain. The flattening of the lower back and lumbar spine puts the thoracic spine in flexion, and results in muscular tightness and resultantly pain.
2. Difficulty in performing daily life activities:
Daily life activities demand muscular strength, flexibility, and physical activity. Excessive use of high heels disturbs the balance of muscles of the back, legs, and foot. As a result, women find it difficult to do their daily tasks. Muscular tightness causes pain while bending, lifting, standing, and moving around. Regular use of heels results in muscular spasticity which can lead to chronic back pain in the future.
3. Wearing high heels leads to the development of poor postural habits:
When one wears heels, then the whole posture of his body gets disturbed. While wearing high heels, the pelvis moves a little forward. When the lower body moves forward, the upper body leans backward for compensating the balance. This is an abnormal posture. It leads to abnormal loading on the muscles and spine.
4. Foot tenderness due to high heels:
When you wear a heel then the position of the foot is plantar flexion. It means the body weight is on the toes of the feet. This excessive burden on the toes causes various problems like metatarsalgia and hammer toe. Wearing high heels for a prolonged period puts extra pressure on the fascia of the foot. This results in tightness of fascia and is called plantar fasciitis.
5. Prolong use of high heels leads to backache:
As heels disturb the posture of the vertebral column, the risk of back pain increases manifold. The anatomical position of the lumbar spine is concave. The Lumbar spine gets flattened because of the forward position of the lower body. As a result, the thoracic spine gets hyper-curved. This abnormal position of the spine puts abnormal weight on the spine and muscles. It leads to backache in females.
6. High heels increase the occurrence of Ankle sprains:
Wearing high heels requires a lot of practice. There is a greater risk of falls and twisting of the ankle while wearing high heels due to the bumps on the road. This often leads to the twisting of ankles mostly while climbing stairs which leads to ligament tears and rupture. The position of the foot in the high heels is quite abnormal. It blocks the blood vessels which leads to the reduction of blood flow to the foot.
7. High heels add risk factors for osteoarthritis:
Wearing high heels puts abnormal and unequal pressure on the knee joints. This leads to the development of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis results due to the damage to the cartilage which is caused by the wear and tear of joints. In it, the bony surfaces of the femur and tibia come close to each other. High heels put extra pressure on knee joints and speed up the wear and tear of joints.
Selection of proper footwear:
We need to select the appropriate footwear for use in our daily routine. Shoes should be comfortable and well-fitted. It is better to select shoes with wide and block heels rather than pencil heels. People who are already facing plantar fascitis and heel pain should go for the medicated shoes.
These shoes act as a support to the natural alignment of the foot and act as a shock-absorbing surface. They maintain the proper blood flow to the foot as well. They make it easy to walk and perform daily activities. On the other hand, uncomfortable shoes also reduce the efficiency and work performance of women.
While you may want to occasionally wear high heels, we recommend buying two-in-one shoes. They provide you with a choice to quickly convert them to be either flat or high heels.
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Last Updated on 8 months by Shahbaz Ahmed
