In practice, some of my patients that complain of back pain realize that it coincides with a night out when they wore their high heels. I often get asked that question “could my back pain be due to the fact that I wore high heels yesterday? “. While I was browsing the internet, I found this research report on the topic and thought it may be appropriate to talk about it and stir up some discussions. The easy answer to the comment is that it may create muscle fatigue or calf tightness, that it changes the alignment of the spine and creates compensations but does it really? More and more researchers are looking at the topic. This research actually looked at the impact of wearing high heels on the erector spinae muscles ( muscles close to your spine) and the way your pelvis gets affected when you walk.
Women have been wearing high heels since the 17th century either for social or work events. There are some reports that 59% of women actually wear high heel shoes for 1- 8 hours per day. We have thought that high heel actually changes and raises your centre of mass of the body which will change the stability of the posture and will affect the lumbar muscle timing which will result in fatigue and pain. It will tend to have an effect on the low back curve called the lordosis by increasing it and will change the way women walk or pelvis mechanics. Are these true facts, what did the research say!