Did pointy shoes cause a plague of bunions in medieval England?

The highest prevalence was: Among those buried in the friary, 5 of the 11 individuals identified as clergy from their characteristic belt buckles had signs of bunions.Overall, bone fractures likely caused by falls onto outstretched arms were significantly more common among those who had bunions compared with age-matched individuals who did not.In modern people, research suggests that bunions can cause changes in gait that make falls more likely, especially in older age.The archaeologists behind the new study have published their findings in the International Journal of Paleopathology.“We think of bunions as being a modern problem, but this work shows it was actually one of the more common conditions to have affected medieval adults,” says first author Jenna Dittmar, Ph.D., of the University of Aberdeen, who conducted the study while working at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge.The authors write that there are several risk factors for bunions, including increasing age, obesity, and inherited variations in the bone structure of the foot.