High Heels, Health Risks, Bad Side Effects, & Muscle Stress


Higher injury risk, quick adaptation
Heel-wearing women also have an increased risk for injury, not only when they’re in heels, but also when they switch to Nike’s or other flat shoes.

“In a person who wears heels most of her working week,” Dr. Cronin says, the foot and leg positioning when wearing heels “becomes the new default position for the joints and the structures within. Any change to this default setting,” he says, make up “a novel environment, which could increase injury risk.”

“We think that the large muscle strains that occur when walking in heels may ultimately increase the likelihood of strain injuries,” he added.

What’s more, the changes in gait and biomechanics become almost permanent in a few years. In their study, Dr. Cronin says, the volunteers “were quite young, average age 25, suggesting that it is not necessary to wear heels for a long time—meaning decades—before adaptations start to occur.”

How was the study undertaken?
For their study, researchers recruited nine young women who had worn high heels for at least 40 hours a week for a minimum of two years and, to serve as controls, 10 young women who rarely, if ever, wore heels. The women were in their late teens, 20s or early 30s.

At the lab, both groups of women were equipped motion-capture reflective markers and electrodes to track leg-muscle activity. The length of muscle fibers in their legs was measured with ultrasound probes.

All women were asked to walk several times along a 26-foot-long walkway equipped with a plate that gauged the forces generated as they walked.

The control group covered the walkway 10 times while barefoot, while the other women walked barefoot 10 times and then 10 times again in their chosen heels.

Does the study mean you have to dispose of your favorite high-heeled Ferragamo boots?

For women who don’t want to get rid of their heels but are worried about muscle and joint strains, Dr. Cronin’s advice is simple. Use heels less often he says, like “once or twice a week.”

Still can’t live without using heels daily? Then “try to remove the heels whenever possible, such as when you’re sitting at your desk,” he advises.

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