Lifestyle
Getting comfortable in high heels
Another equally serious side effect is toe deformation, which can make women suffer severe pain in their feet and can only be fixed by operations.
Margaret Wong Wan-nar, a scholar of orthopaedics and traumatology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong , said as women often chose high heels that exactly fitted their feet, the shoes left no extra space for their toes to relax when they walked. That might force the toes to develop into claw toes.
Hallux valgus, or bunion, is the most common kind of toe deformity resulted from wearing high heels. When the toes are being squeezed inside the high heels for some time, the big toe is gradually forced to incline to the second toe. The joint at the base of the big toe will protrude and become swollen.
¡§When your toes are deformed, you will find wearing shoes painful because the swollen joints are pressed by the shoes,¡¨ Wong said.
Toe deformities can only be treated with operations and Wong suggests sufferers to avoid wearing high heels after the operation so that the good condition of the feet can be maintained.
To prevent one from suffering any foot problems, experts agree that high heel wearers have to take the right steps to choose the shoes and keep their feet healthy.
Ways relax your feet
1. Use the thumb to massage the bottom of the foot in circles to relax the muscles.
2. Massage the area below the ankle to relieve any pain and tiredness.
3. Pull the big toe away from the second toe. Hold the position for five seconds and then let go. Repeat this exercise for a few times. This exercise is useful to stretch the muscles between the big toe and second toe and to prevent toe deformities.
4. Place the foot on the ground. Pull the toes upwards until the heel still touching the ground and the ankle muscle stretched. Hold on for five seconds and then let go. Repeat this exercise for a few times.
