Are Your Shoes to Blame for Your Hip Pain?

Whether it affects one or both of your hips, hip pain is more than a minor inconvenience. It can worsen with time, causing stiffness and limited mobility along with the pain. 

Our medical expert, Dr. Glenn M. Flanagan, investigates the possible causes behind your hip pain and evaluates the damage within the joint. At Naples Regenerative Institute in Naples, Florida, we strive to provide exceptional care for hip pain and other types of joint pain and find the causes and contributing factors. 

You may already know that poorly-fitted shoes can lead to pain in various parts of the feet and ankles, but hip pain due to unsupportive shoes tends to come as more of a surprise. Here’s how your choice of footwear affects your hips:

Limit your time in high heels

A beautiful set of heels completes any outfit for a night out on the town. Yet, be wary of how often you wear your favorite pairs. Any high heels over three inches affect your hips because they force your center of gravity forward by keeping your heels in an upward position. To compensate for this shift, different muscles spring into action to keep you balanced as you stand and walk in the heels. That includes some of the muscles supporting your hips. 

When you wear heels too often, you start to develop muscle imbalances that can affect various parts of your body, including your knees, hips, and back. That places extra stress on your hips, causing the joints to wear down more rapidly than they would otherwise. 

Find a supportive sandal

Easy as they may be to slip on your feet, you should stay away from flip-flops when possible. While flip-flops are a great option for protecting your feet in public locker rooms and other shared areas, wearing them regularly isn’t doing your hips any favors. 

Flip-flops are generally a poor choice of footwear because of their lack of arch support. Without arch support, you have less support for your hips and lower back. The arches of your feet absorb 100% of the shock when you walk or run. The shock absorption carries upward, causing hip and knee pain in the process. Just like with heels, too many days in these shoes leads to wear-and-tear on the hips and long-term joint pain. 

The footwear you should choose

We’re not here to dictate your choices in fashion, but assessing a shoe’s support before purchasing it can make a positive difference for the future of your hips. Many shoes are supportive and built with plenty of arch support and cushioning to absorb shock that would otherwise impact your knees and hips. 

While purchasing shoes, you should make sure that the shoes you choose are the correct size and shape for your feet. If you have wide feet, buy wide shoes. Extra-wide shoes are also available so you can avoid feeling obligated to purchase a size up to accommodate your feet. 

If you struggle to find a shoe that fits your fancy and has built-in support, you can always get orthotics for the shoes to help distribute the pressure across your feet when you stand and walk. 

Hip pain can be a complex issue to treat. Fortunately, even if you have a history of wearing shoes that cause hip pain, there are plenty of treatments to improve the pain and your mobility. To learn more, schedule an appointment over the phone or online at Naples Regenerative Institute today.