High heels are DANGEROUS!

No one should be shocked that wearing high heels (2+ inch heels) can be dangerous. I’m not talking about falling or slipping on a slick floor. To understand what you may be doing to your lower leg, let’s consider the position you put yourself in when you slip into those stellar heels.

Your foot is plantar-flexed, meaning your toes are pointed down toward the floor and your heel is lifted. If you’re familiar with the anatomy on the backside of your lower leg, with each step you take, you are shortening the achilles tendon and calf muscles, and a dysfunctional movement in the ankle joint ensues. This puts you at risk for an seemingly endless list of impairments. Of all of the injuries reported in a recent study by the University of Alabama-Birmingham, 80% on injuries occured in the lower leg, whereas 20% were in the knee, trunk, shoulder, head and neck.

If you are a regular heel-wearing person, consider alternatives if you’ve experienced the following impairments:

• Strains or sprains
  
  
• Stress fractures
  
  
• Decreased range of motion in the ankle
  
  
• Decreased step length
  
  
• Decreased sense of balance

Take these impairments seriously because these can lead to neurological function of your gait that lead to musculoskeletal disorders later in life.

My advice is to try and find heels that are below 2” or flats with a supportive sole.

Chronic pain of the lower leg and foot increases your chances of being sedentary, therefore putting yourself at risk weight-gain and all of the chronic diseases that follow. Take care of your feet now when your feet are still healthy and indulge less frequently in fashioning those fancy high heels.


University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Injury rates from wearing high-heeled shoes have doubled." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 May 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150521120924.htm>.

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