Wearing high heels could prematurely age joints, warns new research.

While many women turn to the fancy footwear to add glamour to an outfit, or to walk taller while out and about, a new study has found that walking in towering heels could be damaging to your body. And we’re not just talking about six-inch stilettos – no, heels at three-inches have been shown to cause changes to gait (the pattern of how someone walks) similar to those seen in ageing arthritic knees.

Researchers from Stanford University in California tested 14 women’s gaits as they walked in a variety of shoes. The strutted in everything from flat trainers to three-inch heels, and it was found the higher the heel the more the gait and movement of the knee changed.

“Because women and men are observed to have similar knee biomechanics during barefoot walking, gender differences in footwear, specifically high-heeled shoes, have been implicated as a possible factor for the higher incidence of osteoarthritis in women,” researchers said, pointing out this could answer why osteoarthritis is twice as common in women as men.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and is caused by wear and tear of cartilage. Cartilage is what helps joints take the impact of movement; bending, gripping, kneeling and lifting.

The findings are published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research and also highlight how being overweight can make matters even worse.

“Many of the changes observed with increasing heel height and weight were similar to those seen with ageing and osteoarthritis progression.

“This suggests that high heel use, especially in combination with additional weight, may contribute to increased osteoarthritis risk in women,” the findings stated.

This research comes just two months after experts found wearing heels in your older years could prevent deadly falls.

Christopher Walker, a consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, found wearing a slight heel as you get older can help maintain a sense of balance – something which naturally deteriorates with age.

"Most high heels have a very small surface area to walk on, so you need a good sense of balance and proprioception [a sense of how various parts of the body move relative to each other] to be able to walk in them," explained Christopher.

"This means that because of wearing high heels, women have a very good sense of balance."

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