Question: Is it true that really tight fitting clothing, such as jeans, are bad for your health?
Answer: There is a fine line between health and vanity when it comes to clothing. The benefits of feeling good because you look good versus feeling uncomfortable because your clothes are too tight are close in value.
Tight fitting shirts or pants may restrict proper respiratory phases and inhibit oxygen transfer or lung capacity. Tight fitting pants may restrict or compromise the pelvic organs including the bowels, which can interfere with digestion. Some physicians believe that tight fitting undergarments restrict semen production in males and can encourage infection in both sexes due to excess friction and heat production.
As far as your spine goes, clothing should not restrict your range of motion, especially when participating in sports. Weather conditions may dictate the amount of clothing you wear in outdoor sports. Any clothing interfering with your gait or that alters your normal mechanics of walking or running is a potential health hazard. Tight jeans look very nice and accentuate your body if that is what you are after, but compressing your joints, organs and tissues to sacrifice your health should be a consideration. I still don’t get the boxers or exposed underwear with the pants down-to-your-thigh look.
It may be just a generation gap thing or a rapper thing but as a chiropractor it doesn’t look comfortable nor healthy to constantly be lifting your pants up. I will be the first to admit I am not a fashion bug. From my chiropractic perspective clothing should be loose fitting comfortable, natural fibers and not restrict your gait or body in any way. When it comes to clothing you can still look
great and not sacrifice your health.
Quote of the week: “The only thing to go with the flow is a dead fish.” – Brian Dodge