Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, my name is Dr. John Fritz, and today we're going to talk to you a little about some common
injuries as a result of high heels and how to prevent them.
High heels cause all kinds of damage to the nails and skin in your forefoot. The pressure
being placed on the toes and the ball of your foot is tremendous in a high heel. This commonly
results in ingrown toenails from the nails pushing up against the tip of the toe, corns,
and calluses from shoe irritation. Black toenails are frequent secondary to pressure on the
nail bed, as are fungal toenails.
Some other more acute injuries are ankle sprains, stress fractures as result of the abnormal
stress being placed on your foot and on your ankle. Shooting pain in the forefoot is also
a common condition due to an inflamed nerve, and it's very common with pointed shoes.
Heel pain, either on the bottom as a result of plantar fasciitis, in the back as a result
of Achilles tendonitis, or the more common pump bump, all can occur in high heels.
So what do you do? Try to choose a shoe that has a lower heel height. Under two inches
would be ideal. Try to choose a shoe that has a rounded or a square toe box so that
your toes aren't as constricted. The depth of the toe box is also important.
Usually, at this point in my conversation, all my women patients roll their eyes and
just tell me that this isn't practical. So if you're going to wear a high heel, try to
limit the amount of time that you're actually in the heel. Protect your toes. Cut your toenails
more frequently so that they don't rub up against the tip of your shoe. Protect your
lesser toes from irritation with silicone toe pads, which are my favorite. And above
all, stretch and exercise. Stretching your Achilles tendon can prevent a lot of pain
in the heel and actually can help lessen the effects that the high heels are having on
your body.
Another type of shoe you can utilize to give the appearance of a high heel would be a platform
shoe, where you actually have some height in the front of the shoe so that the incline
of the shoe is less. This produces less stress on the toes and in the ball of the foot.