Women who regularly wear high heels should not go back to flat sandals, scientists cautioned on Friday. Scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University, in northern England, said that they had found that wearing of high heels for a long time thickens the Achilles’ tendon and makes it stiff permanently. They said that in case of switching to flats, one’s calf muscles are forced to stretch and causes immense pain. The findings are part of the study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
In the study, two groups of women aged between 20 to 50 years were assessed. The first group wore high heels (two inches or more) for two or more years, while the second group was of women who always wore flats. The women who wore high heels regularly complained of pain when they switched to flats. Tests showed that their muscle fibre were at least 13 per cent shorten than those wore flats. “If you wear high heels for two years or more, five times a week, muscle fibers will become shorter and tendons will thicken and stiffen,” Professor Marco Narici, who led the research, told NewsCore. “This has an immediate effect in restricting ankle movement and impacts your ability to walk fast and run — both in heels and flats.”
The professor added he would suggest women to wear heels and flats on alternate days. But he pointed that his study showed that most of the women who wore heels regularly preferred them at least five days a week. The study also suggests that women who wear heels should go for some stretching exercises at the end of the day in a bid to ward off problems like soreness or immense pain.
