High Heel Shoes Damage Your Brain

Its official! Not only do high heels give you foot pain, bunions and back pain, they can give you headaches and even damage your brain.

Lets face it girls, high heels are painful. Pain is the body's natural mechanism telling us something is wrong, yet we persist. No pain, no gain we say. But who gains, really. The heels are getting higher, with the brands such as Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo creating stilettos with 6 inch heels.

In reality, any shoe that distorts the natural shape of the foot is doing you damage.

1. High heels bend your feet at very unnatural angles. The most common thing that happens is foot pain and bunions. The cosmetic industry offers collagen injections that plump up the balls of the feet. This temporarily resolves the pain issue, making the wearing of high heels bearable. However, prolonged foot pain leads to permanent damage.

2. High heels distort the natural alignment of the spine. This results in back pain as the spinal nerves become compressed. Your posture also becomes altered over the years resulting in further pain.

3. High heels can cause headaches and impair mental function by constricting blood vessels and nerve supplies.

4. High heels destroy your balance and your confidence. Do you ever wonder why many old ladies seem to be looking at the ground when they are walking? It's not because they are looking for cracks in the pavement. It is because they no longer know where their feet are. Here is why.

When you wear high heels, you're walking on tippy toes. This means the nerve endings on the soles of your feet do not get the required stimulation, and your feet eventually stop 'communicating' with your brain. It's the case of use it or loose it.

High heels may give you confidence when you are young, but will ultimately rob you of confidence as you age.

What you can do to save your feet and your health

If you are suffering from foot pain, ankle pain, leg pain, back pain or migraines, follow these steps to stop the pain and regain your health.

- If you have to wear high heel shoes, minimise any walking you do in them. You can wear them while you're sitting at your desk at work

- Walk barefoot at every available opportunity. There is no reason to wear slippers indoors unless your floor is constantly littered with broken glass or worse, Lego.

- Invest in a pair of Fivefingers for general walking and any sporting activities. These will get your feet 'talking' to your brain again.

Source: Yoga Health February 8, 2010