Fashion can carry a high price. Skinny jeans have become enormously popular in the last decade and are commonly worn by many celebrities including Kate Middleton (pictured last week).
Hipster fashion victims are being warned about the dangers of their denim after a woman wearing skinny jeans became seriously ill, collapsed and could not walk.
The 35-year-old lost all feeling in her legs and was trapped for hours lying on the ground when her tight jeans cut off the blood to her legs. After a day of squatting as she helped a relative move house while wearing skinny jeans, the Adelaide woman’s feet went numb and she fell over, she was taken to Royal Adelaide hospital after several hours of waiting, she spent four days in hospital, two of them being on a drip. Her denim jeans had to be cut off as her legs were dangerously swollen. They found that the damage to the muscles and nerves in her lower legs was so severe it took her four days on a drip to recover the full use of her legs and protect her kidneys from lasting damage. For at least two days she was unable to walk because she had such severe ankle and foot weakness, she couldn’t really move either foot, and her legs below the knees were massively swollen.
Wearing shorts or loose clothing while squatting usually allows stressed calf muscles to swell outwards without impacting on nerves. However, the woman’s jeans prevented that and forced her muscles to compress downwards and crush her nerves, while also releasing proteins that could have damaged her kidneys. The combination of squatting and tight jeans caused compartment syndrome.
Neurologist’s clothing tips:
- Wear appropriate clothes for the task
- Looser clothing, perhaps with elasticity, will let muscles expand
- If tingling is felt, such as when squatting, get up and walk around
Certainly if you’re squatting in skinny jeans for whatever reason and your legs feel uncomfortable or tingly, you should stand up and walk around to get the blood pumping again.
Do you think this will make you think twice before wearing them?
