High Heels, A Health Hazard

 Ever since I saw the enormously high heels making their appearance I have been concerned about the health hazards they pose to women.  Unable to wear one and a half inch heels now I only know too well what havoc these enormous stilts can cause to feet, calves and back.  Wearing a favourite pair of boots I kept getting back ache and couldn't figure out why.  I then wore flat shoes and did not have this problem which is why I have worn flat ballet pumps ever since. 

Reasonable heels make a dress or suit look more stylish, no doubt, but the overly high heels do not do the same trick because they are just that, overly high heels, which defeats the object of looking stylish and well dressed.  The statistics below prove a point when it comes to health hazards.

High Heels, High Risk

• Close to half of US women wear high heels even though 71 percent say the shoes hurt their feet
• From 2002 to 2012, more than 123,000 injuries from wearing high heels were treated in US emergency rooms
• High heels change the dynamics of normal human walking, leading to an unnatural posture that adds tremendous strain to your hips, lower back and knees

Women's High Heels

I have long been outraged at the high killer heels that young women wear now and have written about this before.

The eminent and beautiful French Actress Catherine Deneuve once gave an interview to assure us that flat shoes or mid-heels can be more elegant than high heels. 

I tend to agree.  We have so many wonderful designs in Ballet Pumps nowadays.  A few days ago I wrote about the discovery of the foldable Ballet Pump.   These pumps now come in all colour combinations and look stunning.

Granted, heels add to an outfit and make it look very feminine as well but the overly high heels that we see now do nothing for an outfit and even less for women’s feet.

Five inch heels ruin the feet and actually can look quite ugly.   Miss Deneuve described the trend as an ‘aberration’ and feels that simple shoes allow women to feel emancipated and, of course, walk much safer without doing lasting damage to their feet.

Of course, Miss Deneve is now 69 years of age so it would look extremely odd if she appeared in a pair of these five inch heels however much they‘d match her outfit, not to mention that she would probably not even be able to walk in them.  She says:  “a simple well made shoe with the perfect arch is such a pleasure.  Added to this, the actress has always had impeccable style in the mould of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn so would never dream of wearing something that did not totally complement the outfit she was wearing.

Source:  Emine Sinmaz, Daily Mail, Monday 15th April 2013