Wearing High Heels Makes You Depressed, But You Look So Darn Good.

Researchers found that wearing non high heeled shoes can lower your risk for depression and other neurological disorders as well as possibly be used as therapy for these problems! Read the paper here. So all you need in life to be happy are your flippy floppies, but how is that possible?

The nervous system is extremely complicated and hard to understand even after getting a degree in it, so I will do my best to make this easy to understand. Some basics to know.. signals traveling through the brain as well as from the brain to the body and are sent as electric signals. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal chord and the peripheral nervous system consists of the all the nerves that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body. There are several tracts that travel from the brain to the body and each is characterized with certain functions i.e. motor, pain, temp, etc.

First we should talk about what depression is.. You have probably seen that Zoloft commercial where the little ball is rolling along frowning, but after taking Zoloft it seems to have regained a happy hop now cured of depression. So, most people know what depression is behaviorally, but what causes it? Within the brain there is a region called the limbic system. The limbic system contains the hippocampus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, and limbic cortex which directs signals that affect emotion, behavior, long term memory and sense of smell. So the limbic system is involved in hormone release, memory storage and signaling. Severely depressed people are often found to have increased amounts of the hormone cortisol as well as a higher concentration of neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. So, researchers have not exactly figured out what cellularly defines depression but the activity of the limbic system is a target. (Zoloft works to regulate the amount of serotonin)

How does wearing highheels affect this you ask? Walking is a physical activity and the body monitors the flexion and contractions of the muscles as you walk and sends different signals based on what it perceives the muscle contraction to mean based on experience. So, when you wear highheels the angle between the front part of your foot and your shin makes your foot constantly flexing as if you are on the balls of your feet which is different than the continual flex our foot should feel as you walk. Normal foot flexing, as exhibited while using flat shoes, inhibits the limbic system and stimulates the creation of new neurons (neurogenesis). So when you wear high heels, you have an overactive limbic system- causing you to have crazy emotions, behaviors, etc (maybe releasing hormones making one prone to depression) and you aren't making as many new brain cells. Maybe this explains some things? Why is causes neurogenesis and inhibits the limbic system is a post in itself, but i hope this makes sense.

Don't let this discourage you shoe lovers of the world (cough- Kim- cough).. but put on those flats from time to time!!

Sorry for the long time between posts. I will be posting more frequently!