A study shows that women that wear heels frequently will suffer severe foot problems

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We hope our homie Angela Yee is listening! LOL!

A new study suggests that the shoes you love are putting you at risk for muscle injury, even when you walk barefoot.

When you wear a high-heeled shoe, your foot is forced into a plantar-flexed position. In other words, you’re pointing your toes as long as you’ve got the shoes on. Imagine Barbie feet.

Day after day of teetering in towering heels appears to shorten fibers in the calf muscle, and make the Achilles tendon stiffen instead of flex with each step, a new study published last week in the Journal of Applied Physiology suggests. (You can access the abstract here, but you’ll have to pay to read the whole thing.) Both of these factors may contribute to muscle fatigue, and potential injury.

In this study, researchers analyzed the way longtime high-heel lovers used their muscles to walk across the room, both with their heels and without, and compared their gait to that of women who generally wore flats. The nine habitual high heel wearers had worn heels of at least 5 centimeters (that’s just under 2 inches) at least 40 hours every week for at least two years; the 10 control participants usually wore heels for less than 10 hours each week.

The heels devotees tended to walk in that perpetually flexed-foot way, even when they walked barefoot. “The results suggest that long-term high heel use may compromise muscle efficiency in walking, and are consistent with reports that high heel wearers often experience discomfort and muscle fatigue. Long-term high heel use may also increase the risk of strain injuries,” write the authors, led by Dr. Neil J. Cronin, currently a researcher at Finland’s University of Jyvaskyla.

Will this study keep you from rockin’ yo’ stilettos on these hoes?

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