How is fashion affecting your health? We tend to ignore the warnings that our bodies give us because, well, what we are wearing looks good on us! Here are some problems that the following trends could cause our health.
High Heels
They improve your posture and make your gait look feminine. Yes, all of that is true but there is also the old wives tale that wearing high heels regularly will make your derriere big. That cannot be verified, but what can is that women who frequently wear heels higher than two inches can be victims to bunions and irreversible tendon injuries. Heels can cause shortening of calf muscles and back muscles resulting in chronic pain. Walking in high heels exerts pressure on the joints of toes, ankle and knees. Narrow tipped shoes cause overcrowding of toes that may lead to corns and callouses.
Corsets
This body modification item of clothing has been around since the 16th century. It gives women the ever so desirable tiny waist and the hourglass figure. Corsets are not only used to give the illusion of a flatter stomach, but women have actually used them to change the shapes of their bodies, from inside out. Tightlacing is a method in which the corset is tightened to shape the waist to extreme proportions. The smallest waist achieved through tightlacing is 13 inches! The internal organs in the torsos of these modified bodies have to change position to make space for themselves. The women cannot use their whole lungs and only breathe though the top part, thus causing the bottom part of their lungs to fill up with mucus which causes coughing. Corsets if not sized properly can cause shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, indigestion and other problems related to breathing and digestion.
Skinny Jeans
This trend has taken a life of its own. Some skinny jeans are so tight around the ankles that they require zippers to let feet through. Wearing such tight fitting pants can cause a condition called meralgiaparesthetica. This is basically compression of superficial nerves of the thighs and legs, causing tingling, numbness and pain. Skinny jeans can cause reproductive disorders in men because of the amount of heat generated in the thick pair of denims. The best option to keep abreast of the fashion trends would be to find a stretchable pair of jeans that lets your skin and your nerves breathe!
Big Totes
The size of the bag is never the problem, it’s the ability of women to fit their entire world into them that starts the trouble. The bigger the bag, the heavier it tends to get and heavy bags can put stress on the neck, back and shoulder. It can cause great discomfort and pain and, over time, a change in posture. People carrying heavy bags usually bend in the direction of the weight. Thus heavy bags cause slouching and serious disorders like misalignment of the spine and cervical spondylitis and spondylosis.
Ties
Ties are more of a dress code than fashion attire, but it is one of the biggest causes of spread of infectious diseases. When is the last time you washed your tie? I think ‘never’ would be the answer that comes to everyone’s mind. Ties are expensive pieces of cloth that are not often cleaned and are thus breeding grounds for germs. Contact is the most common way to spread diseases and ties are touched quite often. Either spray them with germicide or send them out for dry cleaning periodically, because even if they look clean, they most probably aren’t.
Fur-lined boots or ballet flats
Shoes that are too flat are not good for walking and posture. They don’t have padding and cause stress on the knees because of the impact that travels through the leg. Wearing extremely flat shoes to walk long distances can lead to heel pain and plantar fasciitis which is the inflammation of the tendon connecting the heel to the toes, the one that makes the arch of the foot. Fur lined boots are hard to clean from inside and can cause fungal infections of the foot.