What causes hammer toes?
What are hammer toes? Hammer fingers are a painful deformity of your second, third or fourth finger. The condition causes your toe or several fingers to contract upward and permanently bend in the middle joint. The end of the toe or fingers flexes downward and creates a shape that vaguely resembles a hammer. What causes hammer toes? Hammer toes are caused by imbalances in the strength of themuscles of the lower leg and foot. Your muscles work in pairs to straighten and bend the toes. If your toe bends and stays in the same position for a period of time, then your muscles tense and become unable to stretch. It is believed that poorly fitting and high-heeled shoes play an important role in the development of hammer toes, as they can push the lower toes to a bent position that eventually causes the muscles of the toes Feet are unable to straighten the finger, even when there is no shoe confinement. It is also believed that arthritis, injuries and bunions cause hammer t...