RLC #7

Numbness, Blood Clots, Infertility: The Real Skinny on Skinny Jeans Source: Tashara Jones and Lindsay Putnam, The New York Post, 25 June 2015

Donna McCoy won’t be caught wearing skinny jeans this summer, and it’s not because of the unbearable humidity that’s settled upon the city.

“I stopped wearing skinny jeans because my thighs went numb,” says the 40-year-old accountant from Harlem. “I do not recommend them, and if you do decide to wear them, they should be a size bigger. Skinny jeans are there to form to your body, not contort it.”

McCoy isn’t the only one who’s experienced the negative side effects of the fashionable denim style, beloved by models such as Kendall Jenner and Kate Moss and even Princess Kate Middleton.

An unnamed Australian woman recently made headlines around the world, after being hospitalized for four days due to form-fitting jeans.

The 35-year-old had spent hours squatting while packing for a move, which eventually caused her feet to go numb. She collapsed on a

sidewalk, where she remained for hours, unable to get up, until a passerby called the hospital.

Doctors believe that the woman developed compartment syndrome; the case was published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry on Monday.

“Your leg is divided into four muscular compartments, and those compartments are wrapped by what’s called fascia, which is basically an envelope around your muscle that contains your blood vessels and nerves,” explains Dr. David Greuner, managing director and co-founder of NYC Surgical Associates.

The fascia is inelastic, so if there’s too much pressure from blood flowing into that compartment, the veins that return blood to the heart are blocked off.

“The skinny jeans caused a similar situation,” Greuner says of the Australian case. “She was getting extra blood to her legs because when you squat, the heart tries to deliver more oxygen, but it couldn’t get back to the heart because the jeans were like a tourniquet.”

Though the Australian woman was released from the hospital, Greuner expects she will likely experience long-term effects.

1. Annotate the article by marking your confusion.2. Show evidence of a close reading.3. Write a 1 page reflection.

RLC #7“I wouldn’t be surprised if she needed a decent amount of rehab. She’ll suffer longtime weakness, pain and won’t be able to reach her full athletic potential.”

The horror story from Down Under has some New Yorkers ready to ditch their tight pants altogether.

“Now that I know about the health risk of skinny jeans, I would stop wearing them,” says Nachae Davis, a 20-year-old Manhattanite who says she owns about 30 pairs.

Compartment syndrome isn’t the only possible injury caused by the stiff skinnies. Wearers are also susceptible to numbness, blood clots and back pain.

“If you’ve ever fallen asleep on your arm and woke up and your arm was dead, [skinny jeans] can cause the same thing. It’s caused by pressure on the lateral nerves on the side of the leg,” says Greuner.

Blood clots are much more serious, though it’s extremely unlikely a healthy young woman would suffer one simply because of her choice in pants.

The most common problem? Limited range of motion, which can cause back pain and other mild maladies.

“I saw a woman walking very stiff-legged one day,” recalls Dr. Scott Weiss, co-owner of Bodhizone Physical Therapy and Wellness. “The jeans were so tight that they forced her knees into extension, so she could not bend them the proper 35 degrees for a proper gait. She walked like a stiff person with her butt out. That causes back pain; that causes weakening of the quads.”

Sandy Wong, 34, still wears her skinny jeans, but is conscious of the effect they’re having on both her and her 5-year-old daughter. “Being that I’m a mom, I will be more cautious about my skinny jean purchases,” says the China native now living in Manhattan. “I do not want [my daughter] to see me struggling to put them on or take them off.”

Men who adopt the trend are at even more risk, says Greuner. Studies have shown that they can cause infertility and erectile dysfunction.

Meanwhile, some women aren’t happy about ditching their go-to bottoms.

“I would stop wearing skinny jeans because my health is more important than anything else,” says Gail Holland, a 50-year-old lawyer visiting New York City from Louisiana.

“But I would miss the way my butt looks in them.”

RLC #7

It happened to me: My skinny jeans nightmare Jane Ridley

Modeling a pair of Topshop skinny jeans on a girls’ vacation in Cyprus, I thought I was the bee’s knees — until I was writhing in agony, desperately trying to pull them off in the middle of town.

It turned out that, at least for me, stroking the neck of a tame pelican (his name was Steve) while wearing skintight denim was a dangerous combination.

In a bizarre incident in my mid-20s, I made the horrifying discovery I was allergic to pelican feathers. After petting the bird, my legs swelled up like sausages, straining the constricting fabric that encased them.

The hives on my thighs were the size of saucers.

“Get them off me!” I yelled to my friend, Kay, who managed to yank off my pipe-cleaner-style pants with great difficulty.

I hastened back to our hotel — wearing only a T-shirt. The swelling took three days to go down, but my aversion to skinny jeans has lasted into my 40s.