<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/558460d1ecad04e324bebe58-761-547/skinny-jeans.jpg" border="0" alt="skinny jeans" /></div></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Hipsters take note: Wearing skinny jeans could actually cause bodily harm.</span></p><p>Scientists recently <a href="http://jnnp.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/jnnp-2015-310628">documented a case</a> of <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">a 35-year-old woman whose legs had swelled up so bad - and whose ankles had become so weak as a result - that she couldn't walk. At the hospital, doctors had to cut off her pants to remove them from her distended legs.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Her diagnosis?</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Compartment syndrome, a condition that results from <span>increased pressure in a confined body space, like, from wearing skinny jeans.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The study, hilariously titled "Fashion victim: rhabdomyolysis and bilateral peroneal and tibial neuropathies as a result of squatting in 'skinny jeans,'" was published Monday,<span> June 22,</span> in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">At the hospital, the woman told doctors she'd spent the day in a pair of e</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">xtremely tight pants. She'd reportedly been </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">squatting and emptying cupboards while helping a family member who was moving when she began to feel extreme pain and discomfort. A medical exam revealed signs of nerve and muscle damage in her legs.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The injury kept her from being able to walk for days, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">highlighting the hidden dangers of hipster fashion.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>"I would certainly say, be cautious about wearing skinny jeans when doing this sort of activity," study co-author </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Thomas Kimber, a </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">neurologist at Royal Adelaide Hospital and the University of Adelaide, in Australia, who treated the woman, told Business Insider. </span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">So if your plans include squatting for long periods at a time, maybe consider swapping the skinnies for a pair of equally-fashionable leggings.<span> </span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><h2>A walk in the park that turned into a hospital trip</h2><p>The woman told doctors that her jeans began to feel tighter and more uncomfortable as the day went on. By the time she went for a walk in the park that evening, she noticed her feet beginning to feel numb. Soon she had trouble lifting them.</p><p>Within a few hours, she collapsed, lying on the ground for several hours before she was able to crawl to the side of the road and hail a taxi to take her to the hospital, Kimber said.</p><p class="p1">When he and his colleagues examined the woman, they found her lower legs were incrediby swollen, especially below the knees. So swollen, in fact, that <span id="docs-internal-guid-439c3fdb-0858-a8cb-49ac-6d69b1cd62af"><span>hospital staff "had to cut her jeans off her," Kimber said.</span></span> The woman had severe weakness in her calves and problems moving or feeling her feet, he added.</p><p class="p1">Medical tests revealed that the woman had abnormally high levels of the enzyme creatine kinase, which can be a sign of muscle damage and can, <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">if left untreated for long periods, </span>harm the kidneys. Luckily, the woman's kidney function was normal. A CT scan revealed she had low muscle mass - worse on the right side - suggesting signs of muscle damage.</p><p class="p1">Other tests showed that the woman had poor function in the <span id="docs-internal-guid-439c3fdb-0860-df07-2a35-d94740d21eb9"><span>two main nerves in the calf, the common peroneal nerve and the tibial nerve</span></span>.</p><p class="p1">Since being treated with fluids and rest, the woman has made a full recovery, said Kimber.</p><h2 class="p1">Could this happen to anyone?</h2><p class="p1">This type of lower leg nerve injury is often caused by compression of the nerves near the top of the calf bones, such as from prolonged squatting.</p><p class="p1">In the woman's case, wearing skinny jeans probably made the problem worse by building up pressure in her legs, <span>the researchers said. </span></p><p class="p1"><span>"If<span id="docs-internal-guid-439c3fdb-0863-02d2-3483-2932546dee94"><span> she'd been wearing loose, flowing trousers, the muscles could have swelled outward," Kimber said. But in the skinny jeans, her swollen muscles "had nowhere to go, except down onto the nerves and the blood vessels," he said.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1">There have been a <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=393385">handful of </a><span id="docs-internal-guid-439c3fdb-0851-3f7c-28fe-5215d00e4dad"><a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=393385">reports</a> in which wearing tight pants have compressed nerves in the groin and caused numbness in the thigh. But a<span>s far as the researchers know, this was the first report that wearing tight jeans caused damage to these particular nerves and muscles. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There's still no word on the health risks of wearing plaid shirts or thick glasses, however.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tie-bow-tie-mens-fashion-gentleman-2015-3">The fashion trick every modern gentleman should know</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5ieTVoczqm_18BP-kF7-RWzVwt92WajO" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', '5ieTVoczqm_18BP-kF7-RWzVwt92WajO',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Wearing skinny jeans could be really bad for your health

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/51cb22abecad047b7b000002-1200-800/115538299.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Grounded Coffee Folgers" width="480" /><p class="source">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</p></div></div>I'm going to assume this question is only inquisitorial in nature and you have no homicidal or suicidal thoughts.</p>
<p>You're correct in that <keyword id="23086" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Caffeine">caffeine</keyword> in high doses can kill you. There have been numerous deaths attributed to excessive caffeine ingestion.</p>
<p>However, the actual dose that will kill a person is somewhat difficult to answer.</p>
<p>There are several factors that make this a tricky question. Not everyone reacts the same way to caffeine. People also become tolerant to it and so the effects can be different from person to person. Lastly, there would be no respectable researcher who would dare perform a study on humans, if the goal of that study is <keyword id="6355784" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="death">death</keyword> to that same person.</p>
<p>All that being said, there are some very good studies that have allowed doctors to understand what's going on inside the body in caffeine overdoses. They also have been able to presume the approximate dose that would prove fatal for the average person. So while the exact dose is almost impossible to answer for a given individual, I can tell you the highest caffeine dose ever ingested by someone who survived was a mere 100 grams. Although that might not sound like that much, in terms of raw amount of caffeine, it should be noted that that's the amount of caffeine in about 1,200 cups of <keyword id="6354798" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="coffee">coffee</keyword>! While lesser doses would probably kill many, we can safely say that's around the upper bar.</p>
<p>So you might now be wondering how exactly caffeine can be fatal to a person, in terms of what exactly is going on in the body when high doses of caffeine are ingested. Caffeine is one of several naturally occurring substances known as Xanthines. Xanthines are among other things, central nervous system (CNS) stimulants. Caffeine, specifically, is in over 60 known plant species. It's the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world. Depending on which study you read, approximately 80-90% of the US population consumes at least 200mg per day. In low doses, it has many benefits that can help with things like pain management, water retention, alertness, and a general feeling of wellbeing, to name a few.</p>
<p>As with most CNS stimulants, the higher the dose, the more profound the reaction. As you consume more caffeine, the risks begin to outweigh the benefits. A person can become jittery, anxious, begin having high blood pressure, chest pain, headaches, dehydration, and unfortunately, dependence that causes withdrawals if you don't continue consuming it. In toxic doses, caffeine can cause extremely low blood pressures, seizures, cardiac rhythm problems, and lactic acidosis.</p>
<p>While there appears to be some dissension among researchers as to exactly how xanthines, like caffeine, cause the reactions they do. What is known is that they antagonize what are known as adenosine-receptors within almost every cell in the body.</p>
<p>Adenosine is a chemical present in every human cell. It combines with other chemicals like phosphate to create numerous compounds that help cells work properly. Those compounds need to attach to their receptors to affect cells. There are 4 main groups of adensonine receptors within the body and their effects can fall into four categories. Generally speaking, adenosine compounds help in increasing the oxygen available to cells, protect against the damage caused by a lack of oxygen, help in initiating the body's natural anti-inflammatory responses, and help in the creation of blood vessels.</p>
<p>Caffeine is similar to adenosine in chemical composition, and as such, can attach to adenosine receptors not allowing adenosine compounds to perform normally. The result is CNS and cardiac stimulation, relaxation of the smooth muscles, and a diuretic action on the kidneys that can lead to dehydration.</p>
<p>Thus, in high levels, caffeine can be very toxic. It will bind to adenosine receptor sites known as subtypes A1 and A2. The result is seizures. In high doses, it will also inhibit an enzyme known as phosphodiesterase, while stimulating the release of neurotransmitters involved in your fight or flight nervous system. The result is extremely fast heart rates, dilation of your blood vessels causing low blood pressures, low potassium levels that can cause lethal heart rhythms, the breakdown of sugars in your liver, and an increase in your white blood cells.</p>
<p>If all that doesn't seem like it's deadly enough, those side effects will cause their own problems. Specifically, lactic acidosis will be caused by your body's tissues not getting enough oxygen because your blood pressure is too low. The result of your seizures, low oxygen levels within your cells, and an inevitable calcium release from an area of your cells called your endoplasmic reticulum will give you what is known as rhabdomyolysis- this is a breakdown of your muscles causing a release of your muscle fibers into your bloodstream (brown pee and clogged kidneys anyone!).</p>
<p>If you're thinking "I'm never drinking that nectar from Satan again," don't worry, those toxic reactions won't happen at normal consumption levels. Don't just take my word for it; according to the FDA, moderate amounts of caffeine, around 100-200mg a day is not harmful. They are quick to point out, however, that caffeine will affect people differently based on weight, sex, age, and sensitivity. They also state that 600mg or more per day is not recommended.</p>
<p>So unfortunately, when it comes to caffeine, I can't tell you the exact dose that will kill you, other than to say the highest known dose survived by anyone to date is about 100g. I will, however, repeat the advice that works for just about anything you choose to put in your body, "everything in moderation." If you decide you want to consume 4 energy drinks and follow it with 3 chocolate bars and some Starbucks coffee ice cream, anxiety, chest pain, and headaches are what you can expect, at the least. That and an increased waist size!</p><p class="tagline">Want to gain some daily interesting knowledge? <a href="http://todayifoundout.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1b41057449af09fd2f4481595&amp;id=cfe94f6138" target="_blank">Today I Found Out</a> offers a free daily newsletter to help you feed your brain.</p>

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Wearing skinny jeans could be really bad for your health

Tanya Lewis

This Is How Much Caffeine It Takes To Kill A Person

Today I Found Out