A 35-year-old woman in Australia was hospitalized for four days after experiencing muscle damage, swelling, and nerve blockages in her legs after squatting for several hours while wearing skinny jeans. “We were surprised that this patient had such severe damage to her nerves and muscles,” said Dr. Thomas Kimber of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. The patient, who has not been identified, spent most of the previous day helping a friend move. Clad in skinny jeans, the woman said they felt increasingly tight and her feet were numb as she walked home, causing her to trip and fall. Unable to get up, she spent several hours laying on the ground before getting to the hospital. Sound ridiculous? Kimber and colleagues published a report about the case online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Kimber said tight jeans have previously been reported to cause nerve lesions in the groin but not the kind of nerve problems in the lower leg and severe muscle damage they saw. He said squatting compressed the nerves in the lower leg, reducing the blood supply to the calf muscles and that the skinny jeans worsened the problem. The woman had to have her jeans cut off at the hospital, and after receiving four days of treatment, and despite lingering weakness in her legs, she walked out of the hospital and later recovered fully. “I think it’s the non-stretchy nature of jeans that might be the problem,” Kimber said, noting that tight pants with more elasticity wouldn’t be as dangerous since they wouldn’t squeeze nerves and muscles. He doesn’t wear skinny jeans himself, but not because of the medical risks: “I’m too old to get away with them!” Your thoughts? Are skinny jeans a health risk? Or are skinny jeans kinda played out and totally lame? Source
