Girls we all know when there is a formal party, we love to strap on those super cute high heels.  This is an essential for any short girl, at least for me because I am 5’2.  Heels tend to make our feet hurt after wearing them for a long period of time, but we still wear them anyway.  So what is the science behind high heels?  Is wearing high heels affecting our health?

High Heels pay a toll on women’s spine, hips, knees, ankles, feet, posture, and gait. A study was conducted showing the affects of heels on your body.  First, lets get some facts straight:

The Spine Health Institute (Florida Hospital Medical Group) claims,

• Percentage of women who wore heels at some point: 72%
• 77% of women wear heels for special occasions
• 50% wear them for parties
• 33% wear them for dancing
• 31% wear them to work

(picture by the Spine Center Altamonte)

Researchers discovered that high heels actually “alter the natural position of the foot-ankle complex, and thereby produce a chain reaction of effects that travel up the lower limb at least as far as the spine.” heels create acute and chronic effects that impact women’s balance.  

Another study was conducted with women in school to be flight attendants, in South Korea.  If you have ever been on a plane, you probably have seen female flight attendants in some sort of heel.  This is a four year school, thus, ten women from each grade level participated in this experiment.  The students were tested on “balance boards and computerized exercise machines”. Jee Yong-Seok, the professor of exercise physiology at Hanseo University, led this study.  The freshman, were the control so to speak because they have just began wearing heels; therefore, they did not have any change in their feet or balance.  Moving on to the sophomores and juniors who were wearing heels for a longer time, their feet showed that “wearing high heeled shoes may at first lead to adaptation and increased strength,….upperclass women had worse balance than the freshmen, even as some of their muscles were strengthening. (Yong-Seok 2015). You may think, if wearing heels make your feet and ankle stronger, then we should wear them more often.  You are actually wrong to think this way because the study does not end there.  Finally, the seniors were tested and the results showed weakening in their joints and muscles around the ankle.  Dr. Yong-Seok claims,”the ratio of strength between the muscles on the sides of the ankles and those at the front and back became increasingly unbalanced over years of wearing heels, contributing to ankle instability and balance problems and eventually to a decline in the strength even of those muscles that had been stronger for awhile.”

This study, as compelling as it is, lacks a large group of randomized women.  More than forty women should be tested to make conclusive results.  Also, women all over the world should be tested, to eliminate a third variable.  What if the shoes are not causal to the muscles and ankles worsening, but an environmental factor is present?

With the facts presented we can assume, 99%, that the shoes are a direct causation to the worsening balance and the muscle changes.  High Heels do affect women, after long periods of time, so do not be discouraged from wearing heels once in awhile.  If you wear heels everyday, you may want to rethink that decision if your concerned with your health. 

But do not worry, science has not abandoned us, there are solutions to help ease or limit the pain. 

After reading these articles, I will be wearing heels only when I need to: during a party, wedding, or my future career. Let’s save our feet from short term aching and long term effects by reducing our heel wearing today.  

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(picture by the Spine Center Altamonte)