Dr. Michele Summers Colon known as ‘The Holistic Podiatrist’ shares the healthiest height and style for  stilettos, a common dilemma women with diabetes, on April’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast.

Dr. Michele says to avoid stiletto shoes that are made of cheap products (such as plastic) and pointy toe styles. She recommends purchasing stilettos made of good quality leather with an open toed shoe box,  and a little front platform. A  style with a front platform is better for you because the platform lowers the angle between your ankle and the ball of your foot therefore decreasing pressure on the ball of your foot.

April’s INSTANT WINNER Challenge posed the question, “Shoes with high heels should be no more than …”?

Over 50 women entered our INSTANT WINNER Challenge about the proper height of high heels for  April’s Diabetes Late Nite. Unfortunately most of the women guessed the wrong answer – including me! My research stated that the correct heel height should be 2 inches high. However, Dr. Michele Summers Colon strongly recommends that high heels should be no more than 1 1/2 inches high.

“ A 1 1/2 inches high heels would be a kitten heel or a flat. Or you have find a shoe with a 2 inch heel but with a little platform in the front,” says Dr. Michele Summer Colon. 

Did you know the high heel made its way to the Western fashion scene in the late 1500s as part of a craze for all things Persian?

Those early heels were aimed at men and modeled on the riding boots of Persian cavalry. By the mid-1700s, however, they had become a woman’s shoe. Today, American women spend $20 billion annually on high heels, but the shoes haven’t been altered in a meaningful way for decades!!!

High heels cram toes into a tight pocket, directing excessive amounts of force to the heels. Sarah Jessica Parker, who was famous for wearing them, had to swear off them after her foot rebelled by growing a protective layer of tissue. But most women have long accepted the pain.

“My patients come to me and beg me to fix their feet,” says Michele Summers Colon in an interview with Bloomberg Business Week. She recently started 34 Minute Shoes—a reference to how long women can stand in normal heels without pain—which is also rethinking the heel.

34 Minute Shoes, Cole Haan, and others have focused on adding extra cushioning or creating a more customized fit around the foot. The Thesis team has zeroed in on the steel shank, a strip of metal a few inches long  that’s at the heart of most shoes. In high heels, its purpose is to provide the strength needed for the wearer to stand at an angle.

When a woman is walking in high heels, the end of the stiletto jams into the ground and sends a shock up through her heel. Standing still is just as bad, because about 90 percent of the pressure is on the toes. The extra give in the Thesis shank helps spread that load by allowing the foot to sit more naturally in the shoe instead of tilting forward or backward.

A physician, surgeon, health coach, yoga teacher, anatomy instructor, author and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon has treated many women living with diabetes.

“They ask me to operate on them and inject them—anything so that they can keep wearing high heels, she says. “Women remain willing to put up with an awful lot of pain in the name of fashion. “They give lingerie a run for the money in terms of being a highly sexualized fashion accessory,” she says. “That’s at the heart of why [stilettos] are so popular and persistent and have become the archetypal grown-up women’s shoe.”

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Diabetes Late Nite featuring music by Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Guests include Grammy Award winning artist, Lisa Fischer (featured on Lang Lang’s ‘New York Rhapsody’ album), the Charlie’s Angels of Outreach, Poet Lorraine Brooks and Mama Rose Marie.  Throughout the podcast we will be featuring selected songs from Lang Lang’s ‘New York Rhapsody’ album courtesy of SONY Music. The album includes all-time classic Rhapsody in Blue, as well as Empire State of Mind, Moon River, New York Minute, Tonight, Spiderman Theme and many more. LISTEN NOW