If you like wearing high heels, you may be taking your feet a step in the wrong direction. Hammertoes, corns, calluses, bunions, and ingrown toenails are among the health problems high heels can inflict on your feet, warns Dr Mary Ellen Franklin, an exercise physiologist and associate professor of physical therapy at the Medical College of Georgia.
Foot pain, foot deformities, changes in back posture, knee osteoarthritis and balance impairment are additional ills linked to spike heels, he said in a web report.
Franklin says that when the women wore high heels, "they came down harder off the step than in flats, and the older women came down harder than the younger women".
"Also, when women wear heels, they come down hard on the forefoot, which is where many of the deformities occur over time," she adds. The women in the study were also subjected to a variety of balance tests while wearing safety harnesses to prevent them from actually falling.
The older women "fell" 27 percent more often when they wore high heels, compared to when they wore flat shoes.