Finding The Right Occasion for our Heeled shoes: Striking a balance between fashion and health.

This really isn't  my idea but its a write-up that was requested for. I can remember it started when within the university environment in daytime on an uneventful day a lady passed by on heels. These were the comments it generated
1. Must you Ladies wear heels?
2.Do you know the anatomical implication as a medical student?
3.Why do you go on heels when you know you will have to struggle on it?
4. When did heels become an everyday wear?
The questions went on and all i could do was laugh because i do know i am guilty of this too. Funnily it even reminded me of a colleague that almost fell on her wedge booties when she was on her way to class and on her way back home. Then, i can remember when the American first family and the beautiful ladies of the house were described(their style and modesty) and this issue arose, the writer made mention of the fact that on their flats foot wears  their styles were always still unique. But seriously i would agree to the fact that heel shoes have now become a menace in our society and i am wondering out loud about who told us we were too short or needed them to look good.

 High heels may turn heads, but new research shows the long-term cost of wearing them is even steeper than the sky-high price tag of some coveted brands.

Along with aching feet and a variety of foot deformities, years of high-heel wearing can actually alter the anatomy of the calf muscles and tendons, according to a study by researchers in England, published online July 16 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The incline of high heels causes the calf muscles to contract. Over time, this causes the muscle fibers to shorten and the Achilles tendon to thicken, so much so that some women feel pain when they try to walk in flats or sneakers.

“You put on heels, you are going to deform your body. End of story,” said New York City podiatrist Dr. Johanna Youner, a spokeswoman for the American Podiatric Medical Association who was not involved with the research. “High heels look beautiful, but the body isn’t meant to wear them. There is no way around it.”

For the study, Marco Narici of Manchester Metropolitan University and colleagues recruited 80 women aged 20 to 50 who had been wearing heels of at least 2 inches almost daily for two years or more. Of those, 11 said they experienced discomfort when walking in flatter shoes.

When compared with women who did not wear heels, ultrasounds revealed the women who wore heels had calf muscle fibers that were 13 percent shorter, while MRIs showed the Achilles tendon, which attaches the heel bone to the calf muscle, was stiffer and thicker.

“This is a great study that looks at the mechanism of how high heels may cause grief and aggravation to the woman wearing them,” said Marian Hannan, a senior scientist at the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, who was not involved in the research. “This may have an impact on how future shoes are designed and help the industry understand how women can be slaves to fashion but not suffer so much physical discomfort.”

It’s not a big leap to know that shoes that hurt can’t be good for you, Youner said. For example:

• High heels put stress on the back and knees. Squeezing into high heels with narrow toe boxes can cause a condition called Morton’s neuroma, a painful thickening of tissue between the third and fourth toes.
• Haglund’s deformity, sometimes called the “pump bump,” occurs when back straps of heels dig into the tissue around the Achilles tendon. Too-tight shoes can bring on bunions, an enlargement of bone or tissue at the base of the big toe that pushes the big toe toward the second toe.
• Pointy shoes can worsen hammertoe by forcing the toes to bend at the middle joints, eventually causing them to stay bent and rigid even when barefoot.
• And then there are those uneven-sidewalk wipeouts that lead to ankle sprains and breaks

REMEMBER TODAY ISN'T THE BEST OF YOUR LIFE. YOU STILL HAVE A WHOLE LOT OF IT AHEAD. BE WISE