A medical study of high heels has confirmed the widely held view that women are crippling themselves in the name of fashion.Tottering around in stilettos all day may make you look taller and more sophisticated but it also puts tremendous strain on joints and muscles in the leg by forcing
wearers to walk with an unnatural gait. It may explain why osteoarthritis of the knee is twice as common in women as in men, say researchers at Harvard University in America.
Although it has long been suspected that high heels are bad for your feet, the study is understood to be the first time scientists have actually tried to find out if the theory is true. The doctors believe the function of the ankles could be altered as women struggled to maintain their balance, putting greater compressive forces on knee and hip joints.
The team compared the hip, knee and ankle joints in 20 women aged 34, and compared their walking when wearing 12.7cm high heels with walking barefoot. The findings, published in Lancet medical journal, proved walking in high heels significantly reduced ankle torque. Much of the resulting strain was taken up by the knee, which may lead to eventual degeneration of the joint. The anatomy lecturer at the Auckland School of Medicine, Dr Tony Poole, said: "This is probably the first paper to really show altered mechanical loading in the joints and gets you one step closer towards convincing people that high-heel wearing is not good in the long term.
The damage is caused by the elevation of the heel over the ball of the foot. Also, when you strike with a narrow stiletto-style heel a lot of force goes through a very narrow point. "The foot is quite unstable so you get lateral movement which requires control of the ankle to stop you falling over."
