Is it bad to cross your legs?

Question:

i have sat with my legs crossed probably starting when i was around seven now i am fourty. i cross them every time i sit down, eventually after a long priod of crossing my top leg gets numb. i have heard that crossing your legs can cause vein problems, back problems, and hip problems, i dont have any at all, but is this true that it is bad? do you cross your legs also? and are you aware it might be bad?

Answers:
it can cause serious varicose veins and poor circulation try not to it is hard but not good for you try crossing only at ankles

i cross my legs from time to time and one of my leg gets a little numb. is it a habit for you? i think it is bad so maybe if you can, you should stop it. but i guess it's alright if you do it from time to time. goodluck=]

i cross my legs when the rest room is busy!

It doesn't cause problems that I know of. I think the top leg only gets numb because blood has to flow uphill to get to your foot. It's too comfortable to seem like something that could cause problems, lol.

I personally cross my legs frequently. It feels more comfortable, for some reason, than sitting with my feet flat on the ground. From what I understand, sitting cross-legged is harmless.

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Circulation: crossing your legs only compresses a small circumference of the leg which your rather well designed body can easily cope with by diverting blood around

Varicose veins: Varicose veins develop due to progressive failure of valves in the veins. This process occurs due to the weight of blood upon them, which is maximal when standing, so sitting cross legged is fine.

Nerve injury: Dead legs sustained from prolonged cross-legged sitting are due to the nerves being short of blood flow over the compressed segment, it would need to be continuous firm pressure for over 2 hours to start to cause any permanent problems - and who sits for over two hours without adjusting their position? .The answer is people who are drunk or smashed on drugs or collapsed with a medical problem, these can have prolonged compression on one part of the body (even lying still for a few hours) and kill off some of the compressed tissues (pressure sores) - but that is kind of shooting off-topic.

DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) - flow rates in the deep calf veins are inevitably reduced when sat cross legged, and reduction in the rate of blood flow is a risk faactor for blood clotting, but it is enormously unlikely to result in a DVT unless you have other major risk factors, especially as with frequent changes in position, the blood flow is frequently returned to full flow rates.

Is it bad to cross your legs?

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