Heavy legs (French: jambes lourdes) is an alleged medical condition, described as an "unpleasant sensation of pain and heaviness" in the lower limbs. It is recognised primarily in France, and to a lesser extent elsewhere.
Due to the limited recognition it has received, and because of its proliferation in the media and by the alternative health community, many medical practitioners believe it is a sign of hypochondriasis.
The cause may be venous insufficiency or peripheral arterial disease.
Remedies may include drinking plenty of tea, essential oil massages and walking in the sea; or alternatively sleeping with the legs elevated, wearing compression products like support stockings and possibly taking diuretics.
It was described by BBC reporter Emma Jane Kirby as "a curiously French complaint ... the illness you can only get in health-conscious France."
Famous quotes containing the words heavy and/or legs:
“The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“His reversed body gracefully curved, his brown legs hoisted like a Tarentine sail, his joined ankles tacking, Van gripped with splayed hands the brow of gravity, and moved to and fro, veering and sidestepping, opening his mouth the wrong way, and blinking in the odd bilboquet fashion peculiar to eyelids in his abnormal position. Even more extraordinary than the variety and velocity of the movements he made in imitation of animal hind legs was the effortlessness of his stance.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)