Wearing high heels will make you walk like an old arthritic woman

US: When I was younger I used to wear the highest heels I could lay my hands on, despite warnings from my mother that “they’ll give you bunions”.

I didn’t get bunions but there comes a time, as sure as night follows day, when you pay for those stilettos.

And pay I have. I’m condemned to flat shoes now, maybe with a wedge, to compensate for my sore ankles and aching back.

Research from Stanford University, US, explains why osteoarthritis is twice as common in women as men. It shows the higher the heel, the more a woman’s walking has to compensate, increasing the chances of arthritis.

The fact is, wearing three-inch heels makes you walk like an old, arthritic woman.

The Californian researchers said: “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.”

This most common form of arthritis is the result of wear and tear on the cartilage that cushions our joints against the strain of weight-bearing movement.

It affects more than eight million Brits, and stiff, swollen and painful joints can make walking difficult, with stairs ­particularly taxing.

The US researchers monitored the gait of 14 women as they walked in different types of shoes, from trainers to towering heels. The higher the heels, the more their walking changed, including the movement of their knees.

Writing in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, the scientists said being ­overweight could only make things worse.

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

“This suggests that wearing high heels, especially work in combination with carrying any additional weight, may contribute to increased osteoarthritis risk in women.”

Recent research from the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists has shown that when a woman puts on a pair of heels, it takes a little over an hour for her feet to start to hurt.

To make matters worse, women are three times as likely as men to cram their feet into uncomfortable shoes – so nine out of 10 suffer problems from bunions and corns to sprains and strains.

Experts warn that wearing high heels for long periods can trigger stress fractures and trapped nerves too.

On the plus side, studies show that men are more likely to help a woman wearing heels than one wearing flats.

No, I still won’t wear them.