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 heavy sensual shoulders, the thighs, the blood-born flesh
and earth turning into color, rocks into their crystals,
water to sound, fire to form: life flickers
uncounted into the supple arms of love.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“I move my thin legs into your office
and we work over the cadaver of my soul.
We make a stage set out of my past
and stuff painted puppets into it.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)