Do High Heels Really Cause Bunions

I was a teenager when I started to realize that my days of having cute feet were numbered.

Most of the women in my family�" while smart, beautiful, talented, and successful�" have troll feet. Misshapen, claw-like, bunion factory troll feet. When I asked them what happened, I was disappointed to hear that these bunions had developed slowly over time in response to their love for tight heels. That meant that they were coming for me, too. I was horrified. Franky, I still sort of am.

Ever since that fateful day when I came to terms with the reality of my impending troll feet, I’ve felt strangely towards high heels. Pro: They’re cute. Con: They hurt. Pro: They can make or break your outfit. Con: THEY CAN TURN YOU INTO A TROLL. It’s all too much to process every single time I step inside a DSW… so I decided to do a little bit of research.

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Is it really true that high heels cause bunions, or is that one of those BS myths that we pass around and around until everyone’s convinced it has to be true? Let’s find out.

The Scientific Study

A study published in Arthritis Care & Research makes an excellent case for wearing those cute heels despite your mother’s warning. According to their research, bunions are entirely genetic:

Hallux valgus and lesser toe deformity, two of the most common structural foot disorders that affect up to half of older adults in the U.S. and Europe, were found to be highly heritable depending on age and sex. The team reports that plantar soft tissue atrophy did not demonstrate significant heritability in the study cohort.

Okay, so you’re telling me that what I do to my feet doesn’t play that big of a role in how they look? I can’t tell if that’s good news or bad news. On the one hand, I can keep wearing stupid shoes without guilt. On the other hand, I wonder how many beauty treatments we undergo every year that don’t do jack s**t. Something to think about!

The Bunion Surgeon

Dr. Segler, an award winning bunion surgeon, fills us in on the reality of bunions: that they are genetic, yes, but that your shoes can also make them worse. In his words:

No, bunions are not caused by shoes. We get that all the time. We see patients come in, they say, ‘Well, I have bunions because I wore high heels.’ What causes bunions are genetics. If you have bunions, and you look at enough feet at your family reunion, you will see who gifted you with those bunions. Shoes will make them worse. They’ll actually make them happen faster… but shoes never cause bunions, they just simply make them worse.

Well, there you have it. Bunions run rampant in my family tree, so I’m pretty much screwed. Wearing more comfortable shoes might slow down the process and give me a few more years of relatively attractive feet, but at the end of the day, my efforts are pretty much futile. You’ve broken my heart a little bit, Dr. Segler, but I’m glad the news came from a reliable source.

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Reviews

[kittytehkat]

I've actually been wondering about this lately myself! Thanks for the read. Simple, informative, and interesting. My only suggestion is that you put an extra space between the paragraphs or use indentations to clean it up a little.