How Do High Heels Affect the Legs?

Scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain are asking for women who regularly wear high heels to volunteer for a study that will hopefully reveal the effect of such shoes on the leg muscles. Up to this point, research has suggested that habitually wearing stilettos two or more inches high has a negative effect on the health of women's feet and legs. But definitive proof, which this study hopes to provide, has been lacking.

The British researchers will examine the leg muscles of dozens of women in the study through ultrasound and MRI scans, and will observe the changes, if any, produced by wearing different types of shoes. "As with every kind of exercise - and wearing stilettos is a kind of exercise - human tissue will develop with every stimulus which is imposed on it," said Robert Csapo, a Ph.D. student who is conducting the study.

"Unfortunately, because the calf muscle is only used in a shortened position, it will itself shorten and means the muscle is weaker," he speculated. "You are talking about some people who wear heels for 40 hours a week, so it is no surprise that the body adapts to this and people complain of pain and podiatry problems. We hope to obtain some hard scientific data that provides useful advice to both women and shoe manufacturers on preventing the adverse effects of high heel wear."

To correct the effects of long-term spike-heel wear, a special regimen of stretching and exercise would likely be beneficial, said the Austrian-born Csapo, who works at the university's Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health. It's estimated that women in Britain spent the equivalent of $45 million last year on podiatrists and surgeons in an effort to repair the damage caused by high heel wear.