For millions of years, the human body evolved into the ultimate endurance-running machine, heavily relying on the elastic recoil of the Achilles tendon. Yet, over the last century, chronic foot, knee, and back pain have reached epidemic proportions. The hidden culprit is tightly laced onto our feet every single morning.This physiological investigation exposes the silent damage inflicted by modern shoe design. Elevated heels, even the slight ones found in standard athletic shoes, fundamentally alter our anatomy by holding the foot in a constant state of plantar flexion. Over time, this causes...