High heels are stylish, feminine, and awesome, but they cause a great number of foot problems, such as hammertoes, bunions, deformity, and nerve damage.
Wearing heels regularly can also alter the anatomy of your feet muscles and lead to serious injuries that require surgery. If you’ve used to cram your feet into high heels just to look gorgeous, stop doing it for the sake of your foot health.
As soon as you learn these reasons to ditch heels for good, you’ll instantly fall in love with walking shoes.
1. Bone damage
Walking too long in high heels regularly can lead to cracks and stress fractures in the bones of your feet. Although your stilettos boost your confidence and compliment your favorite dress perfectly, dealing with bone damage isn’t a joke.
2. Varicose veins
The statistics show that 1 in 5 women suffer from varicose veins. Some women confess this is all because of the heels. When you wear high heels each day, you’re gradually developing the unsightly spider and varicose veins. The thing is, your weight significantly shifts to your toes when wearing stilettos. The muscles of your calves remain contracted, preventing the proper blood flow in the feet. The blood starts pooling in the legs, thus causing varicose veins.
3. Poor posture
Believe it or not, but those expensive stilettos can alter your posture and cause neck and back pain. They strain your neck muscles and lead to a forward head posture, damaging both lower and upper parts of your body.
4. Sciatica
When you wear heels, you shift your body weight to adapt the tilting of the feet. This way, the arching of your pelvis and back puts a strain on lower back muscles, causing chronic spasm, nagging pain, and numbness in your feet. Sciatica is a chronic foot pain that makes walking and standing unbearable.
5. Plantar fasciitis
When placed in an unnaturally upward position, the Achilles tendon is shortened and the pain and muscle spasm occur. The tightening of the muscles at the base of your calves causes the inflammation of the muscles in the bottom of the feet, leading to plantar fasciitis – one of the most common foot problems that’s associated with the heel pain.
6. Arthritis
The burden of wearing fashionable shoes like stilettos is enormous. These shoes make you keep the balance, putting tons of pressure on your knees. Constant pressure increases your risk of developing osteoarthritis in your knees – a joint disease that requires special medical treatment.
7. Morton’s neuroma
Doctors have also blamed high heels for a rapid increase of Morton’s neuroma, a serious condition that causes nerve damage, numbing sensation, and agonizing foot pain. Shooting burning pain at the base of the toes or on the ball of the foot are the first signs of Morton’s neuroma.
The higher your heels, the bigger the impact, so stop investing in a poor foot health. That pair of killer stilettos doesn’t worth a dime. Opt for walking shoes instead. Or, at least choose the lower heels. It’s up to you!