High heel shoes are seen everywhere these days, they are a must have for any women who wants to appear attractive. They make the womens body look more appealing, they make the wearer look taller and their legs more appealing. However, they are one of the major factors contributing to back pain.
When women wear high heels, the majority of the body mass is pushed down towards the toes instead of the whole foot. This causes the body to work against the way it was designed.
Stress is placed on bones, muscles and tendons that are not designed the bear the weight of the whole bodies, leading to misshapen muscles, curvature of the spine, painful hip problems and even osteoarthritis.
Since the entire weight of the body is thrown forward, the natural balance of the body is thrown off, requiring the body to make continuous adjustments to keep the body from toppling over.
This extra effort eventually leads to strain and muscle pain around the back, causing back-pain. Our spine has a natural s-shaped curvature to act as a shock absorber, but with the body making adjustments to the new balance, the lower spine begins to flatten and the upper spine bends backwards.
Since heels cause the body to lean forward, the body natural response to that is to decrease the forward curve of the lower back to help keep the body in alignment.
This new and foreign alignment eventually leads to muscle strain and back pain. The hip flexor muscles also become overused; they must work harder and longer to help the body walk because the toes are now pointed downwards.
If the hip flexor muscles are constantly being overused, the muscles eventually shorten and cause a contracture. If a contracture occurs, this could lead to flattening of the lower spine.
In addition to causing back pain, high heels may cause a whole host of different problems. Heels generally end in a very narrow point, with the combination of the narrow point and the constant downwards pressure of the body, the toes are forced into misshapen positions and end up causing deformities such as hammertoes and bunions. The drastic changes in the bodies balance also causes the knees to work in a different way than they were designed.
This eventually leads to knee pains and can even cause arthritis as the wearer ages. There are so many problems caused by wearing high heels that podiatrists often comment that 75 percent of their business is caused by females wearing tall high heeled shoes.
Author Resource:-
The online project Good Health Today congregates articles of specialists in health in order to give you the best advice in this important area of life. See more at www.goodhealthtoday.net.
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