Head Over Heels

Heels can cause many the accidental trip or slip here are some reports of heels in the news:

The Independent : High Heel Injuries Cost £29m a Year.

Injuries to feet from wearing high heels cost the nation £29m a year to put right, according to figures out today.

Operations and medical procedures to correct damaged feet can cost sufferers thousands of pounds a time, the report says.

A league table of high heel-induced injuries shows that bunion removal can cost £4,000 a time and £10.5m is spent on this procedure each year.

Toe straightening, the most common procedure, can cost £1,200 each time and £10.4m is spent on this every 12 months.

Big toe joint replacement is also costly at £4,000 a time, adding up to £3.3m over a year.

Corns account for 12 per cent of high heel injuries, and with treatment costing £800 a time, this costs the nation £2.9m per annum.

Removal of trapped nerves can cost £2,000 to carry out, amounting to £2m a year, while ingrowing toenails cost £250 to treat and £200,000 is spent on this every 12 months.

The study of 1,000 women, funded by shoe company MBT, found that those living in Liverpool and Manchester were most likely to suffer from wearing heels, with 45 per cent wearing them every day.

It also found that 42 per cent of the women surveyed reported having some kind of accident in their heels, with twisted ankles and falling over the most common mishaps.

Emma Supple, consultant podiatrist for the MBT Academy, said: "While we all love our high heels, wearing them for prolonged periods is bad news for our health and our wallets.

"We need to mix and match our choice of footwear to allow our bodies time to recover."

She urged women to consider a more balanced "diet" of shoe wear.

BBC News Health : High Heels Shrink Calf Muscle Fibres

UK researchers say they have uncovered why women who often wear high heels can find it painful to wear flat shoes.

Scans of the calf muscles in a group of frequent heel wearers found muscle fibres were, on average, 13% shorter than in those who avoided high heels.

The Journal of Experimental Biology study also found high heels led to stiffer tendons in the calf.

Some time spent in flatter footwear as well as stretching exercises would help to combat the effect, experts said.

Anecdotally it has long been said that regularly wearing high heels shortens the calf muscle.

Study leader Professor Marco Narici, from Manchester Metropolitan University, said in the 1950s secretaries who wore high heels complained that they struggled to walk flat-footed when they took their shoes off.

But no-one has looked at what is actually happening in the muscle.

From a group of 80 women, the team selected 11 volunteers who had regularly worn 5cm heels for two years or more and who felt uncomfortable walking flat-footed.

An MRI scan showed that there was no difference in the size of the calf muscles in the heel wearers compared with a group of women who wore flat shoes.

But an ultrasound scan revealed that the muscle fibres were indeed shorter in the women who wore heels.

Stiff calves

When the women were asked to lie on their front on a couch, the researchers noticed that the angle of the heel in the stiletto wearers was greater due to their shortened calf.

In the final part of the study, they found that the high-heel wearers' tendons were much thicker and stiffer than in those who stuck to flat shoes.

This causes discomfort when walking on flat feet because the tendon cannot stretch sufficiently, Professor Narici said.

Yet he does not think women need to give up their high heels.

"Fashion is intended to be uncomfortable and none of the women in the study planned to give up their high heels," he said.

"We want to give practical advice and I would recommend just doing a few stretching exercises to counteract some of these changes."

He said one useful tip was for high heel wearers to stand on tip toes on a step, and using a handrail for balance to lower their heels as far as they can before raising them up again.

Sammy Margo, physiotherapist and spokesperson for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said the study backed what they suspected.

"The advice we would give is not to wear heels or flat shoes all the time but to wear a variety of heel heights to get the calf muscles working through the greatest range of movement.

"But I can't say we are seeing a higher incidence of calf problems in women who wear high shoes."

Styles of heel

There are so many different types of heels for shoes. They range in height, width and shape. Below are some examples of how heels range.

Boot wedge

Thin medium heel - kitten heel

Thick short heel for a slight bit of subtle height

Raised wedge platform

Small kitten heel

Medium Spool Heel

Wedge Heel

High wedged

Platform stiletto

What The People Say

" I wear heels because I am quite short and I like the height it gives me. I wear them almost everyday".

" I only really wear heel on special occasions, they hurt my feet and ruin my night"

" Heels give a girly and glamorous spin on any outfit, they make wearing jeans on a night out on the town acceptable".

" Heels are my weakness, I buy a pair nearly every time i go shopping".

" Heels really don't interest me, they hurt and are just not necessary".

" Wearing heels it quite hard for me because I am so tall putting heels on makes me tower above people. Good for getting noticed, not so good for trying to blend in with the crowd and not look like a giant amongst everyone".

" I like to wear heels but they hurt, the pain is definitely worth it though".

" I wear heels because it makes me feel more womanly and my friends wear them too".

" When I put heels on I feel like a whole new person, it makes me walk taller and more elegantly".

The Evil side to heels

Spine Alignment

When you walk in high heels, the center of your body mass is pushed forward, causing your spine to arch forward out of its ideal alignment. This skeletal change is immediately visible on an X-ray. The misalignment puts uneven pressure on your rear and front intervertebral discs, which can cause back muscular and joint pain, as well as pinched nerves.

Hip Alignment

In the same way your spine moves out of alignment when walking or standing in heels, so do your hips. To keep your balance in heels, you have to compensate by pushing your hip bones forward. This causes increased strain on your hip flexor muscles, which can eventually cause them to shorten.

Bunions

Heels often cause a tighter fit in the toe area as gravity forces the toes to be pushed into the narrower front of the toe box. As toes are pressed together at the tip of the shoe, you may develop a bony growth at the base of the big toe (a bunion), which causes it to angle in toward the other toes.

Hammertoes

As feet slide further into the narrow toe box of a heel, the smaller toes begin to bend into a claw shape. After repeated exposure to this position, the toes may become unable to straighten, even when you're barefoot.

Bunions

What are bunions?

The common bunion is a localized area of enlargement of the inner portion of the joint at the base of the big toe. The enlargement actually represents additional bone formation, often in combination with a misalignment of the big toe. The normal position of the big toe (straight forward) becomes outward-directed toward the smaller toes. The enlarged joint at the base of the big toe (the first metatarsophalangeal joint) can become inflamed with redness, tenderness, and pain. A small fluid-filled sac (bursa) adjacent to the joint can also become inflamed (bursitis) leading to additional swelling, redness, and pain.

A less common bunion is located at the joint at the base of the smallest (fifth) toe. This bunion is sometimes referred to as a tailor's bunion.

Who develops bunions?

Bunions most commonly affect women. Some studies report that bunions occur nearly 10 times more frequently in women then men. It has been suggested that tight-fitting shoes, especially high-heel and narrow-toed, might increase the risk for bunion formation. Bunions are reported to be more prevalent in people who wear shoes than in barefoot people. There also seem to be inherited (genetic) factors that predispose to the development of bunions, especially when they occur in younger individuals.

Other risk factors for the development of bunions include congenital (present from birth) abnormal formation of the bones of the foot, nerve conditions that affect the foot,rheumatoid arthritis, and injury to the foot. Bunions are common in ballet dancers.

What are symptoms of a bunion?

Bunions may or may not cause symptoms. A frequent symptom is pain in the involved area when walking or wearing shoes that is relieved by resting. A bunion causes enlargement of the base of the big toe and is usually associated with positioning of the big toe toward the smaller toes. This leads to intermittent or chronic pain at the base of the big toe.

Bunions that cause marked pain are often associated with swelling of the soft tissues, redness, and local tenderness.

Even the celebrities can't escape bunions!

Made In...

Behind all those gorgeous shoes are the factory workers who work long hours in dirty and cramped conditions for little pay.

Many people don't think about where their purchases come from. It is hard to make a connection with the workers as sometimes it is hard to trace where products are manufactured. some companies pay out a lot of money to protect themselves from images of their working conditions being published. Bad working conditions mean pay for the workers is low and increases profit for the company.

In many cases the workers have no choice but to work in the said factory because it may be the only work they cane get in their town or possibly don't have any further qualifications to better themselves and need to work in these bad conditions as a means of survival to pay for food etc.

I recently watched a programme on BBC3 where a group of teenagers were sent to the factories where high street clothes are made. They were made to work in these conditions and live off the average wage.

To watch on youtube: BLOOD SWEAT AND LUXURIES.

Heel Fail

I can remember many a time when those beautiful high heel shoes you are wearing show you up, you either get them stuck in a grate or go the whole hog and embarrass yourself completely by falling face first onto the floor. Here are some shoe disasters caught on camera...

Runway malfunctions

Heels race - who ever thought of this idea was asking for trouble

Caught in the decking

Time for a new pair

Amazing Heel Design

In around the 1500s heels were first designed in response to problems horsemen had keeping their feet in the stirrups; shoes before then were simply flat on the sole.

Later on heels broke into the fashion world and were worn by short people who wished to appear taller. Soon, fashion-conscious noble men and women of the French court were seen in high-heeled shoes. High heels became related to wealth. By the late 1600s men’s heels were commonly between three and four inches in height. Throughout the seventeen and eighteenth centuries high heels became a noble fashion among French men as well as women. It wasn’t until late 1700s after French revolution that high heels lost its fame because it was the end of the aristocracy and wealth era which heels were associated to.

Since such times heels have more and more been associated with femininity and mainly worn by women.

Famous shoe designers -

Jimmy Choo

Christian Louboutin

Manolo Blahnik

Alexander McQueen ... to name but a few

Shoe designers today come up with some amazing ideas some that caught my eye are pictured below.

Heels for babies - the heels are made from foam and are meant to be worn as a gimmick and not used to walk on. A funny idea for fashion conscious kids.

Catwalk - These heels have such an interesting and obscure look.

These shoes are available to buy in high street stores yet still demonstrate exquisite craftsmanship and creative design.