4 Foot Issues Associated With Wearing High Heels

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High heels can often times make you feel glamorous, or make you feel as if you're towering above everyone else, exuding an exotic sense of beauty. It should be noted that, while high heels might make a bit of aesthetic sense, they can also provide you with a sea of health issues that can be largely avoided by not wearing high heels to begin with. Although many people are aware that high heels are a great source of blistering, they can also provide you with a litany of other health related foot issues that are far graver.

Ankle Injuries

High heels are not the best when it comes to the safety and health of your ankles for a number of different reasons. High heels provide little (and sometimes nothing) in the way of support of your ankles. This issue is one that can make your ankles unprotected from a series of potentially unfortunate events, including everything from a simple sprain to breaking your ankle. The lack of support on the ankle itself is intensified by the fact that the heels do not provide an ample sense of balance. This can cause the weight of your body to attempt to balance itself entirely on your ankle.

"Pump Bump"

High heels tend to lack support not just for your ankles but over the entirety of the foot. This is mainly when it comes to the top and back of your foot, but your heel is no exception. There is usually little in the way that protects your heel on a high heel or pump. The back straps of high heels are generally quite rigid and stiff, which can cause some serious pain to occur on your heel. This rigid strap can wind up causing a number of problems, including everything from a preponderance of callouses to a bony deformity in your foot known as Haglund's deformity. All the more reason to avoid wearing high heels to begin with.

Hammer Toes

High heels are known for becoming increasingly narrower as the shoe narrows towards your toes. This can cause a number of problems for your toes, the least of which are bunions. Contracting hammer toes becomes a real possibility the more often you wear shoes that are narrow as high heels. The smaller toebox pushes the smaller toes into the middle joint, which is what happens when you contract hammer toes. This will eventually lead to a point where the entirety of your toes will become unable to straighten. The aesthetic effect is quite jarring and lends itself to the appearance of a hammer claw, hence, the name.

Metatarsalgia

Metatarsalgia, commonly caused by high heels in women, occurs due to the fact that high heels cause the weight of the body to become unnaturally redistributed. The front of your foot ends up bearing much more weight than it is used to, which can cause some serious wear and tear issues upon your foot. The symptoms of metatarsalgia include a severe amount of joint pain on the ball of your foot, numbness in your toes and pain that worsens when you are standing, walking or flexing your feet. What was originally just a simple matter of walking could potentially become a pain endurance test on your behalf. The pain associated with this issue is often described as quite agonizing.

High heels can cause a number of different issues for your feet. It is highly recommended that you reconsider wearing heels in the first place or, at the very least, consider wearing them on fewer and fewer occasions. If you have noticed any of the above problems due to high heels, contact a podiatrist at a clinic like Rocky Mountain Foot & Ankle to get treatment. 


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