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Jun 6, 2009 12:07 am US/Eastern
"Skinny Jean Syndrome": Are Tight Jeans Unhealthy?
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Skinny jeans are a popular fashion; you see them wherever you go and may have a pair of your own. But it turns out they could dangerous to your health. Now, one doctor is warning women against wearing the trendy skinny jeans.
This spring and summer, fashion editors say when it comes to pants, skinny is in.
"There's also leggings. You have 'treggings,' which I happen to like because it's a cross between a trouser and a legging," said Self magazine senior fashion market editor Lindsay Taylor Huggins.
But this trend may be creating a whole new crop of fashion victims suffering from what neurologist Dr. Betty Mintz calls "the tight jean syndrome."
Mintz said constant pressure from tight pants can injure a nerve in the thigh. When compressed it causes mild to excruciating pain. "There are people who come in and say it is absolutely the most horrible pain imaginable."
"I was literally dragging my leg for a while so the pain would stop," added Christina Crane. Crane said she's worn low-rise rise jeans for six years before getting her diagnosis and now takes anti-seizure medicine to control her symptoms.
"The jeans are always resting on my hip and I know that's where the initial pain begins is from the pelvis, that nerve there," Crane said.
Firefighters, construction workers and police officers more typically suffer from "tingling thigh syndrome" because they wear heavy, low slung belts. Pregnant or obese women suffer the same because of leg pressure. But lately, more young women are now developing symptoms.
"Certainly, the tight jeans could predispose more skinny, young women to developing this," Dr. Mintz said.
Crane has since tossed her skinny jeans, but will other women do the same? "I still don't think women are going to give up their jeans. Beauty is pain," Huggins said.
Doctors said the pain is the most intense when the condition first starts, but the problem can persist through a patient's lifetime and treated only with pain medication.
This is not the first time blue jeans have been called a health hazard. In the 1970s, rumors circulated of snug jeans causing infertility in men and infections in women.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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