Health warning over skinny jeans

Squatting in skinny jeans for a long period of time has been linked to damage of the muscles and nerve fibres in the legs, health experts have warned.

Doctors have described the case of a 35-year-old woman who collapsed and spent several hours lying on the ground outside, unable to move, before spending four days in hospital.

The case study, which is published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, said she had spent the previous day helping a relative move house, and had spent a number of hours squatting as she emptied cupboards.

She had also been wearing tight skinny jeans and recalled that they had felt increasingly tight and uncomfortable as the day wore on.

Later that evening, she experienced numbness in her feet and found it difficult to walk, which caused her to trip and fall. Unable to get up, she then spent several hours lying on the ground before she was found.

The woman’s calves were so swollen that her jeans had to be cut off her and she could not move her ankles or toes properly.

Doctors found she had damaged muscle and nerve fibres in her lower legs as a result of prolonged compression while squatting, which they believed her tight jeans had made worse.

She was put on an intravenous drip and was only able to walk unaided after four days.

Doctors said previous side-effects of wearing skinny jeans have been limited to lesions of the thigh.