Restrictive Clothing III

Tight-fitting clothing acts like a shell, forcing the soft body tissues to conform to certain shapes and dimensions. However, a human being is not a snail. When we wear restrictive clothing, we change more than our appearance. We also change the way our body functions, resulting in many health problems. Tight shirt collars and ties potentially interfere with the blood flow to the brain. Knee-high hose and elastic topped socks encourage the development of the varicose veins. Tight pants contribute to stomach cramps, chest pain and heart burn. Tight bands are implicated in male infertility, as sperm needs to be kept below body temperature to stay fully functional. Nylon panties are associated with yeast infections in women. Snug, narrow, bra straps cause neck, shoulder and arm pain in women. Tight shoes - especially narrow toes and high heels - can cause back and hip problems, poor circulation, corns, bunions and hammertoes as well as increasing the hazard of tripping and falling. Corsets, popular from the seventeenth century until the early twentieth century, simply do to the female body what tight shoes do to the feet.

Chronically constrictive clothing handicaps the circulatory system. The body's bloodstream highway must be kept unobstructed. For peak performance, all body cells require a freely flowing bloodstream to deliver oxygen, nutrients and other compounds vital to cell health. Equally important to the cell's vitality is the efficient removal of waste products of cell metabolism, toxins, invading germs, and other unwanted materials which must be transported to the body's circulating waste disposal system comprising the liver, kidneys, lungs, and skin.