sitting with your legs crossed

[pusskin]

why is it so bad to always sit with your legs crossed?
Nurses throughout the years have always said ----unfold them legs!

[emmie]

maybe its to do with circulation, im not sure apart from that.

[AlBags]

Makes the old fella longer if you're a guy : )

[Buenchico]

It used to be suggested that sitting with your legs crossed could (through interfering with the free circulation of blood) lead to varicose veins. However there have been a dozen reputable studies into the causes of varicose veins but none of them found a link to leg-crossing.

However, just as the varicose veins myth has been debunked, there are now suggestions that leg-crossing can lead to back pain:
http://www.dailymail....ed-leg-link-pain.html

Chris

[RATTER15]

I think it is just a matter of blood circulation in the legs.

[askyourgran]

It isn't done to cross your legs, whenever I have been in hospital the nurses have always been very strict about even crossing your ankles. It is to do with the circulation, particularly after surgery, when you are more susceptible to blood clots.

[TTG]

Not comfortable on the meet an' two vg if you are a guy.

[starone]

Looks elegant though doesn't it, if you are a lady. Especially if you are wearing stockings, high heels and a dress (not trousers).

[askyourgran]

Better have a word with albags ttg. :-?

[shaneystar2]

Bad for the circulation or so they say .I've been told not to sit with my legs crossed for various reasons ,arthritis ,cellulitis and any old itis . But it's hard not to.
Plus it shifts your weight to one side which can affect the spine .
Not very elegant either . But I'm no longer elegant :)

[pusskin]

here i am sitting reading all your replies with my legs crossed again. Its so comfy, but less pressure when you uncross them! It makes sense that it cant do much do good for the ole veins then.
Thanks for replies and the chuckle x

[starone]

Depends on how you do it shaney. Needs practise and legs up to your armpits.

[shaneystar2]

I used to have legs up to my armpits.I seem to have shrunk slightly :)

[AlBags]

haha

[pusskin]

ah fanks. can always rely on you lot for a good ole chuckle x

[pusskin]

lol bill!

[Sqad]

As Buenchico has said...providing that we are not dealing with a post operative period of time, there is no evidence to suggest that sitting cross legged has any harmful effects on the body whatsoever.

[Sqad]

Just had another thought.....in Arab and Far Eastern Countries, it is the custom to sit cross legged and the incidence of thrombo-embolic disease and problems of the spinal skeletal system is no higher than in other countries.

[emmie]

i do it, but not for long, my ankles swell slightly, and its a tad uncomfortable, and when in hospital, they give you those nora batty surgical stockings to wear you can't do it.

[rowanwitch]

only when you are otherwise less mobile... I was taught its due to the pressure of one leg on the other the soft tissue of the upper calf is compressed against the shin bone of the lower leg supposedly reducing blood flow in the veins ...only a problem if you don't move your legs to different positions now and again... or already have a predsposition to clots forming where they shoudn't.