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Wearing high heels can lead to knee pain.
Wearing high heels is seen as a way to boost a woman's confidence. While it might not look graceful on flat ground, standing two inches or more high instantly instills a feeling of insecurity. However, did you know that wearing high heels to boost self-confidence over time can actually harm your health?
Dangers of wearing high heels.
One of the most obvious dangers of wearing high heels is the increased risk of tripping and falling, resulting in sprained ankles. Prolonged wear can also lead to back and hip pain. When wearing high heels, you have to stand on your tiptoes and tense your feet, causing your body to tend to lean forward. The body then tries to compensate by arching its back and lower hips more to find balance and stay upright, putting extra strain on the back and hips, leading to pain.
Furthermore, high heels also affect important joints like the knees. Ladies, have you ever felt a sharp pain or heard a cracking sound in your knees when walking up and down stairs in high heels? If so, it means you may have a problem with your knees. Even just walking up and down stairs normally puts a lot of impact on your knees. Wearing high heels adds even more stress. Prolonged use can lead to knee pain due to patellar cartilage inflammation from frequent friction. Wearing high heels causes the thigh muscles to relax, the patella to become unbalanced and unstable, and the cartilage to deteriorate prematurely.
Treatment of patellar cartilage inflammation.
There are several ways to treat it. If it's mild, surgery isn't necessary; anti-inflammatory medication and physical therapy can help. However, if it's severe and conservative treatment doesn't improve it, surgery is needed. The location and cause of the inflammation depend on the source. If it's due to uneven joint capsule causing friction and rubbing, surgery is required to smooth the surface and prevent further friction. Alternatively, if the inflammation is left untreated for a long time, leading to joint cartilage degeneration, peeling, and cracking, surgery may be needed to remove the damaged capsule and stimulate the body to regenerate it. This process takes a long time for the body to rebuild the capsule. I want to emphasize that it's best to avoid waiting until that point.
The key to treatment is physical therapy and exercises to strengthen the thigh muscles, in order to prevent recurrence and reduce the risk of osteoarthritis.
Shouldn't we just stop wearing it because it's so dangerous?
Many people might say that if it's that dangerous, shouldn't we just stop wearing them altogether, or switch to flat shoes or flip-flops? But you don't have to go to that extreme. In fact, wearing flat shoes can easily cause Achilles tendon inflammation because the low heel causes tension and pain in the Achilles tendon after prolonged walking. The best approach is to find a middle ground – not too low and not too high, just right. Most importantly, exercise regularly and avoid being overweight, as this increases the risk of knee problems.
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