A case study, conducted in Australia, shows that squatting in skinny jeans can damage nerve and muscle fibers in the legs and feet.
Wearing “skinny” jeans has a trendy side. But wearing it a little too tight and squatting with it can be dangerous for the legs. In any case, that’s what a case study of a 35-year-old Australian woman reveals. Indeed, when the “skinny” jeans are too tight, they exert a compression on the leg which is not negligible.
This tissue compression, called compartment syndrome, can affect certain nerves, which can lead to muscle and nerve pain, difficulty walking, muscle hernias, and even paralysis. The findings of this study were published last Tuesday, in the journal Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Long hours crouching
The 35-year-old was hospitalized in Adelaide, Australia, with severe weakness in both ankles. Dressed in “skinny” jeans, she had spent many hours squatting emptying the cupboards to help a loved one move. On the way home, she felt numbness in her feet, before falling to the ground, unable to walk. It was only a few hours later that she was found before being taken to the hospital.
To the doctors who examine her, “she said to remember that her pants had tightened her and made her progressively uncomfortable,” the researchers say. The legs were so swollen that the caregivers had no choice but to cut their jeans. According to the authors of this study, it is the tibial and bilateral neuropathies, that is to say the compression of the peripheral nerves (tibial and peroneal) in already narrow areas, which are involved.
In short: the prolonged squatting position in “skinny” jeans cut off circulation and crushed the nerve around the knee. This led to loss of sensation, numbness and swelling of the lower limbs.
Serious consequences
Prolonged compression of the limbs can lead to rhabdomyolysis, i.e. destruction of skeletal muscle fibers, whose cells are released into the blood, and which can have serious consequences (hyperkalaemia, intravascular coagulation or renal failure. ).
Fortunately for the patient, everything worked out. Hospitalized for 4 days, she received an intravenous moisturizing solution. The edema and neurological function of her lower limbs improved markedly, ”the researchers explain, so that when she was released, she was able to walk without assistance.
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