London – Plenty of women are happy to endure a few hours of suffering if it means wearing stylish stilettos.
But they are also putting themselves at risk of serious long-term pain, scientists have warned.
A study has found that wearing heels – even those measuring a relatively modest three and a half inches – puts women in danger of debilitating arthritis in years to come.
The research found that walking in heels at this height causes changes to gait similar to those seen in ageing and arthritic knees. It could help explain why osteoarthritis is twice as common in women as men.
The researchers said: ‘Because women and men are observed to have similar knee biomechanics during barefoot walking, gender differences in footwear, specifically high-heeled shoes, have been implicated as a possible factor for the higher incidence of osteoarthritis in women.’
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of the disorder and is caused by wear and tear of cartilage that helps our joints take the strain of bending, lifting, gripping and kneeling. It affects more than eight million Britons. Stiff, swollen and painful joints can make walking difficult, with stairs particularly tricky. The researchers from Stanford University in California studied the gait of 14 women as they walked in different types of shoes, from flat trainers to heels measuring 8.3cm (three and a quarter inches).
The higher the heels were, the more their gait – including the movement of their knees – changed. Writing in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, the scientists said that being overweight may make it even worse.
Researcher Dr Constance Chu said: ‘Putting on high heels changes how women walk in a way that places similar stress across the knees seen in people with knee osteoarthritis. These effects were greater with higher heels and an increase in body weight.’
She said that if women want to avoid knee pain, they can still wear a heel – as long as it is below 2in (5cm). ‘For healthier knees, stay fit and wear flats or heels less than 2in.’
Other recent research has shown that when a woman slips on a pair of heels, it takes just over an hour on average for her feet to start to hurt.
The survey, for the College of Podiatry, also found that women are three times as likely as men to cram their feet into uncomfortable shoes – and that as a result, nine out of ten have suffered problems such as bunions, corns, sprains and strains.
But it’s not all bad news – studies have also shown that men are more likely to help a woman wearing heels than one in flats.
Daily Mail