Pain Free High Heel Shoes, and the Morton’s Toe
The reason your feet hurt when you wear high heels is that your heel bone is never meeting the ground. Because of this, there is pressure on the balls of your feet 100 percent of the time. Over a period of time, this is bad enough for normal feet, but if you are a woman who has the classic, short first metatarsal bone, (Morton’s Toe) your foot problems have just multiplied in high heels. Not only are the balls of your feet are under constant pressure 100 percent of the time in high heels, but that constant pressure is being carried mostly by the second metatarsal bone. Because the weight is never shifted back to the heel at least half of the time (as it needs to be) the second metatarsal bone is carrying 100 percent of the pressure, 100 percent of the time. This is a disaster waiting to happen in regards to your feet.
During his entire career, Dr. Dudley J. Morton repeatedly warned women about the dangers of the excessive wearing of high heel shoes. From the New York Times of November 5, 1935:
Women Advised to Limit Wearing of High Heels
“If women would wear high heels only during the evening they would suffer far fewer foot disorders according to Dr. Dudley J. Morton, Professor of Anatomy in the Columbia University Medical School. Dr. Morton, in a survey in The Human Foot just published, termed high heel shoes a powerful and vicious factor in the disorder when worn during working hours. He asserted that it was not high heels themselves but continuous use of them that made women more susceptible to foot disorders than men.”
WHAT TO DO SO YOUR FEET WON’T HURT WHEN YOU WEAR HIGH HEELS
If you would like to minimize the damage from high heels I suggest you use the toe pad treatment I outline at http://whyyoureallyhurt.com/treatments/. Wear the pad directly on the bottom of your first metatarsal bone whenever you wear high heels OR put directly into the shoe. There is alot more information about the Toe Pad, and high heel shoes in my book Why You Really Hurt: It All Starts In The Foot.
