"not only did shoe makers start a tend that led to generations of women being condemned to wearing high heels, they could also be responsible for the increasing number of cases of schizophrenia. the theory is that heeled shoes may have led to the first cases of the disease and the establishment of mental hospitals.
Researcher Jari Flensmark says that the schizophrenia only appeared after heeled shoes were introduced into a population. The oldest heeled shoe known to man, made over 1,000 years ago, comes from Mesopotamia- the same area where the first institutions dealing with mental disorders appeared. As industrialisation of shoe production spread from North America to Western Europe, there was a remarkable rise in cases of schizophrenia. In england the heeled shoe emerged at the start of the 17th century, and a large increase in mental illness followed. this is compared with Native Americans, who wear flat moccasins and have a relatively low frequency of schizophrenia.
The science? When we walk, the movement stimulates receptors in the lower extremities which increase actvity in brain cells. Wearing heeled shoes weakens the lengthening contractions in the lower leg and foot, so the receptors are stimulated less. This drop in stimulation leads to changes in the dopamine system in the brain. This tallies with the knowledge that schizophrenics' produce more dopamine"