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:
“Whether lying reastlesse in heavy bedde, or else
Sitting so cheerelesse at the cheerfull boorde, or else
Playing alone carelesse on hir heavenlie virginals.”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“set forth three children under the moon,
three cherubs drawn by Michelangelo,
done this with her legs spread out
in the terrible months in the chapel.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)