At Feet First Foot Care Specialists, we know many of our Middlesex County patients have been struggling after COVID stay-at-home orders to get back into wearing regular shoes daily. This difficulty may be even greater if the shoes you’re going back to are high heels. It is an excellent time to consider making a permanent move away from high-heeled footwear.

Extended periods spent in high heels have many detrimental effects on your feet and other parts of your body, including increased risk for:

• Bunions and hammertoes

• Metatarsalgia (ball of foot pain)
• Ankle sprains
• Back pain and spinal stenosis
• Knee pain
• Achilles tendon issues
• Haglund’s deformity
• Arthritis
• Chronic weak ankles
• Constricted circulation

Mitigating the Damage

However, high heels have been a staple in the fashion industry for better or worse, and they don’t show signs of going away any time soon. If you are someone who finds it hard to part with their heels, you can at least take steps to reduce the harm to your feet and the rest of your lower body. Some suggestions:

• Reduce the amount of time you spend in heels. Perhaps you could save them for only special occasions and transition to wearing better shoes for your feet for work and less formal events.
• Don’t wear your heels to and from your festivities. Travel in comfortable shoes and change when or right before you arrive.
• Make sure you are wearing the correct size shoe and strive to find styles that are not super pointy or narrow in the toe box.
• Consider wider heels to increase stability.
• Keep your weight under control. Being overweight adds to the strain on your feet.

If you’re experiencing foot or ankle pain, weakness, or other discomforts, contact our Cromwell office by calling 860-632-5499 for an appointment. Whether the source of your symptoms is your shoes or something else, it’s important to have foot pain evaluated and treated promptly to avoid long-term disability.