Wmagazine.com—September 21, 2011
In this article Dr. Rock Positano of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York comments on women's foot health according to the type of heel they wear.
After seasons of sky-scraping stilettos, I’d begun to wonder what kind of podiatric apocalypse it might take to stop the six- and seven-inch insanity, says the author.
Despite obvious assumptions, though, flat shoes aren’t intrinsically better for feet. “When women wear flats, we tend to see more Achilles tendon and plantar fascia issues,” says Rock Positano, director of the nonsurgical foot service at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery. Translation: Pain in the back and sole of the foot.
Women’s feet, though, are like snowflakes—no two pair are alike, and one woman’s cozy oxford can be another woman’s plantar fascia killer from hell. Still, is there some kind of ideal shoe style out there? “Generally it’s something with a one- to two-inch heel,” Positano says. “A little bit of heel height allows for a little less stress on the front of the foot, the heel, and the knee. And the broader the heel on the shoe, the better the weight distribution on the foot.”
This story originally appeared at Wmagazine.com.
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