Beware the Cinderella complex that can mess up your feet after age 50

Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is one thing.Fitting into your own shoes — decades after buying them — is another story.“A very common misconception is that a person’s shoe size doesn’t change,” Dr.

Rock Positano, a podiatrist and co-director of the Non-Surgical Foot and Ankle Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC., told The Post.In reality, he said, “it is unlikely that your shoe size at age 20 is going to be the same at age 50.”But plenty of people never get the memo.A large body of research shows that most people are wearing shoes that don’t properly fit their feet.One landmark study found that, among 356 women examined, a majority were cramming their dogs into ill-fitting footwear — and had gone up in shoe size since their younger years.There’s even a name for trying to squeeze your feet into a pair that’s too small.

“It’s the so-called ‘Cinderella complex’ of trying to fit a size 9 foot into a size 7 shoe,” said Positano, co-founder of the Non-Surgical Foot and Ankle Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery.But that fairy tale can have a seriously painful ending.The same study found that many women wearing too-small shoes had foot pain and deformities, problems that can take a major toll on quality of life.“Foot and ankle pain may not be life threatening, but it certainly is lifestyle threatening,” Positano said.“Exercise, walking and socializing can be greatly affected in an adverse way.”Feet can change with age for several reasons.

For starters, putting on a few extra pounds can also mean needing a little more room in your shoes.“It causes the foot and its soft tissue muscles, tendons and ligaments to change shape to accommodate the weight gain,” Positano said.Women who have had children can also see their feet grow.“The increase in weight causes foot changes and swelling increase, but there is also a hormone called relaxin that is produced in the first trimester that helps the ligam...