Does Our Feet Grow in Size as We Age?

Hi Rich,

Gerry is driving me nuts about the fact that his feet have grown, in length and width over the past 10 years from size 10 ½ D to now a size 12 ½ E.  Do our feet continue to grow as we age?  Is it weight gain?  Thanks so much as this is worrying him and now he has me worried. 

Tami

Hey Tami, 

    Tell Gerry that the average person's shoe size grows 2 full sizes from between 20 and 70 years old. This is part of the natural flattening of the arches. It seems to perfectly match what has happened to Gerry, myself, and thousands of my patients. So Don't Worry (at least about that), Be Happy. Now some people widen more than lengthen, and others lengthen more than widen, and others like Gerry do both. Normally, if my patients tell me that they are in the same size shoe that they were in 40 years before, I find that they are in too small a shoe. Throw into the mix the terrible sizing standards in the shoe industry, like Nike always running small, it can be sometimes difficult finding the right shoe length. Throw also into the mix that some people expand their feet 1/2 shoe size during the course of the day, I always emphasize the 2 hour before closing rule in purchasing shoe gear. It shrinks down while resting by the next morning.

Golden Rule of Foot: Always Purchase shoes within 2 hours of the store closing and after an average day of activity because your foot may expand up to 1/2 shoe size during the course of the day.

Sure hope this helps Gerry relax. Rich