The years of ignored warnings have finally become a reality for Victoria Beckham as she caves in to pain, discomfort and deformity and elects to have surgery to correct her impressively large bunions. Wearing six-inch heels constantly, even to do daily activities, has predictably taken its toll. At only 34 one would think that Posh is really rather young to be having this sort of surgery, but the allure of heels now means that orthopaedic surgeons are busier than ever correcting the damage that tottering around on spikes causes.
I have seen some truly horrific injuries to the ankles of teenage or twenty-something year old girls that occurred due to a combination of alcohol and unsuitable footwear. Ankle fractures sustained by ‘going over’ on a heel can be extremely messy, with no single clean break, and often require complex pinning operations that never fully restore normal use of the ankle, and inevitably cause osteoarthritis of the joint in later life.
The body comes with a wide array of early warning and damage protection mechanisms, pain being the most obvious one. If something hurts, then it is probably causing damage and should be stopped. This is common sense. Yet surveys have shown that 42% of women will happily endure pain in order to wear a pair of killer heels.
What I found more worrying were the images of 3-year-old Suri Cruise being proudly showed off by her mother whilst wearing high heels. If you want to cripple a child before she reaches her teens then stick her in heels.
Heels cause many stresses on the foot: in addition to restricting, they also massively increasing the weight pressing down on the restricted areas, pushing the toes with enormous force into a small wedge shape. The best-known foot problem is probably the bunion, known medically as hallux valgus. It occurs because the big toe becomes excessively angled towards the second toe – and a bunion is a symptom of this deformity. Once the big toe starts leaning like this then the problem tends to get progressively worse. The jury is still out on whether high heels actually cause bunions; we know there is a genetic component involved, but heels certainly exacerbate them. Bunions do occur in societies that don’t wear heels at all however.
Whilst I fully appreciate that telling women not to wear heels will be about as effective as telling kids not to eat sweets I thought I would give you my top tips on how to minimise the damage as much as possible.
1. Make sure your heels are properly fitted. Most are not. If your feet slide to the front, leaving a gap behind your heel then they don’t fit. Look for narrow heels with a snug but not tight fit.
2. Try to avoid very thin, heels and opt for a thicker one, to increase stability. They should give you better balance and may help relieve some pressure by distributing the weight on your foot more evenly.
3. Invest in some silicone metatarsal pads, which act as excellent shock absorbers and help reduce pain and damage to the ball of your foot.
4. Avoid heels with a straight drop down from the heel to the toe. These can be very hard on your arches: go for a gentler slope.
5. Wear open-toe high heels to relieve pressure on corns and calluses. Closed-toe heels cramp and deform the toe joints more.
6. Try these exercises to strengthen the muscles and tendons around your big toe: put your feet side by side, and try to move your big toes towards each other. Do this three or four times a day, 10 reps each time.
I have seen some truly horrific injuries to the ankles of teenage or twenty-something year old girls that occurred due to a combination of alcohol and unsuitable footwear. Ankle fractures sustained by ‘going over’ on a heel can be extremely messy, with no single clean break, and often require complex pinning operations that never fully restore normal use of the ankle, and inevitably cause osteoarthritis of the joint in later life.
The body comes with a wide array of early warning and damage protection mechanisms, pain being the most obvious one. If something hurts, then it is probably causing damage and should be stopped. This is common sense. Yet surveys have shown that 42% of women will happily endure pain in order to wear a pair of killer heels.
What I found more worrying were the images of 3-year-old Suri Cruise being proudly showed off by her mother whilst wearing high heels. If you want to cripple a child before she reaches her teens then stick her in heels.
Heels cause many stresses on the foot: in addition to restricting, they also massively increasing the weight pressing down on the restricted areas, pushing the toes with enormous force into a small wedge shape. The best-known foot problem is probably the bunion, known medically as hallux valgus. It occurs because the big toe becomes excessively angled towards the second toe – and a bunion is a symptom of this deformity. Once the big toe starts leaning like this then the problem tends to get progressively worse. The jury is still out on whether high heels actually cause bunions; we know there is a genetic component involved, but heels certainly exacerbate them. Bunions do occur in societies that don’t wear heels at all however.
Whilst I fully appreciate that telling women not to wear heels will be about as effective as telling kids not to eat sweets I thought I would give you my top tips on how to minimise the damage as much as possible.
1. Make sure your heels are properly fitted. Most are not. If your feet slide to the front, leaving a gap behind your heel then they don’t fit. Look for narrow heels with a snug but not tight fit.
2. Try to avoid very thin, heels and opt for a thicker one, to increase stability. They should give you better balance and may help relieve some pressure by distributing the weight on your foot more evenly.
3. Invest in some silicone metatarsal pads, which act as excellent shock absorbers and help reduce pain and damage to the ball of your foot.
4. Avoid heels with a straight drop down from the heel to the toe. These can be very hard on your arches: go for a gentler slope.
5. Wear open-toe high heels to relieve pressure on corns and calluses. Closed-toe heels cramp and deform the toe joints more.
6. Try these exercises to strengthen the muscles and tendons around your big toe: put your feet side by side, and try to move your big toes towards each other. Do this three or four times a day, 10 reps each time.
dear dr.jessen hi my name is danielle im 15 i live in ireland i love all your shows !!!!:)i think your blog is really great i was thinking about trying to wear heels your blog has educated me on how to look after my feet and how to find the perfect shoe that wont damage my feet THANK YOU for writing this blog if you dont mind me asking i think you should do embarssing bodies in ireland if you and your team think its cool idea.what do you think about wedges..... hope to hear from you soon your biggest fan danielle.
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