Why High Heels Are Bad For You

High heels: a reason why women choose beauty and fashion over comfort and health

Women want to look beautiful and literally stand out by wearing high heels. Women, both tall and short, seem to exude more confidence whenever they wear high heels. High heels have this bad reputation as being unhealthy and uncomfortable, but many women sacrifice health and comfort for beauty and fashion. But at what price?

Studies have proven that wearing high heels can go beyond mere foot pain. Your killer heels will indeed kill your good posture and can have adverse effects on your health. So better think twice on whether you care more for your health or just be at the forefront of the shoe fashion.

High heels cause tremendous foot pain:

High heels cause tremendous foot pain1. Wearing high heels start to hurt after over an hour on average, according to some studies.

2. One-fifth of women start to feel the searing pain after tottering in high heels for just about 10 minutes

3. Nine out of ten women have suffered a variety of foot disorders such as blisters, cracked heels, corns, verrucas, bunions, and ingrown nails. Some women who have these problems are often advised that they must have surgeries on some of these conditions that are caused by years of wearing these high heel shoes.

The History of High Heel Shoes

While wearing heels can amp up your sex appeal, they otherwise affect your good posture:

1. Wearing those towering heels will push your bottoms and make them look bigger, therefore boosting your sexual attractiveness. This is because your lower back is pushed forward, dis-aligning your hips and your spine.

2. Your feet act as a shock absorber with full of springs that provide a cushion to your skeleton from constant amounts of pounding. Your feet also help in distributing your body weight evenly. But when your feet slip into these towering heels, ouch! They increase the pressure on the balls of your feet and your small, delicate toe bones. The higher the heels, the bigger the pressure on the balls of your feet (also called forefeet). One study proves that wearing four-inch heels can increase the amount of pressure on your forefoot by 30% or more.

3. Knees are another shock absorber as they are the biggest joint your body has. It is also designed by Nature to take constant amounts of pounding. But wearing high heels can frequently put more wear and tear on your knees which can lead to osteoarthritis. Some stiletto die-hards suffer trapped nerves which may require surgery.

4. Wearing high heels forces you to sacrifice your natural way of walking for a staccato walk. Strutting in this manner could cause more bone and nerve damage, apart from the usual foot pains.

5. Wearing high heels pushes your ankle forward, inhibiting proper circulation in your lower limbs. Doing this on an everyday basis could cause spider veins (varicose veins).

6. In order to strut around while wearing high heels, your spine has to move unnaturally. This would put tremendous pressure on your lumbar erector spinae muscle, resulting into lower back pains.

7. Wearing high heel shoes will make you strut that sexy walk which consists of thrusting your hips forward, arching your back, and pushing out your chest caused by wearing high heels. It’s attractive in appearances, but it overworks your outer hip muscles and tendons, which is not so attractive.

8. Do you know that your ankles and calf tendons will considerably feel more taut and shortened when you wear your stilettos over time? This makes walking more difficult and painful, even if you switch into flats.

Other risks of wearing high heels, and tips to take care of your feet

Besides some of those disadvantages to health and posture by wearing high heels, it would lose your poise and lead you to accidents and injuries (especially if you wear long gowns). In case you need to run during an emergency, you’ll take off your high heels and run barefoot anyway or wear insoles for heel pain.

Women who cannot give up their high heels yet despite the pains should be reminded that they don’t need high heels every day just to look great. Remember girls, your health is more important than anything else, so reserve those pumps only on special events and occasions. Avoid wearing heels for a prolonged period, and don’t consider wearing pointed-toe high heels. Try to wear shoes with two-inch heels. If you don stilettos one day, wear comfortable and cushioned flats on the next. Remember that wearing high heels may be more costly than you’d ever think.