Comments on: Women with Larger Hips More Likely to Die from Blood Clots

By: alice

alice — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:56:27 +0000

yikes, out of curiosity, what did the pain in your leg feel like and how long did it last? Now that you know to be a little careful, It’ll help your chances of the embolisms never happening.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:13:44 +0000

God! I knew my Nana was right! Hope all is still working out okay!

By: SuperNova

SuperNova — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:47:30 +0000

Yeah, I learnt that the hard way… I’m only 25, and a freelance graphic designer that spends most of my time sitting at my desk at home. Since I happen to be double jointed, I’ve found that my whole life, I ALWAYS sat with my legs under me, cross-legged, basically, any wrong way to sit. I always assumed I’d have back problems later, and had a kind of “meh” attitude to it all. Like, oh, if my back hurts one day, I’ll stop. But then one day my leg really started to hurt and they found that I had TWO blood clots in my calf. I am completely traumatised and can’t believe I had two chances to have had a pulmonary embolism… I had to be on blood thinners and can no longer be on the pill or take hormones ever again. I will need to be monitored closely when I decide to have children and I have to live with some random pains in my leg (because my veins are screwed up now) :( I’m not overweight but I did smoke occasionaly.

WALK AROUND! Take breaks. Excersise. Often, we think that because we aren’t “overweight”, it’s ok, we don’t “need” to excercise… Take care of your body, it’s the only one you got. Don’t let this happen to you!

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:32:54 +0000

I imagine it would increase your risk but unless you have other risk factors like smoking, being on the pill, or being overweight it’s probably not going to affect your risk that much. Remember a few years back when there was a big fuss about people dying after flying because they were stuck in the same position and developed blood clots? This is the same thing, anyone who sits in a cramped position for too long is at risk to one extent or another. Half an hour isn’t that big a deal but if an artist asked you to sit still for a couple of hours I’d tell them where to stick their brushes.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:17:07 +0000

I sure hope not, but my great-great-grandmother allegedly had a leg amputated for a combination of sitting with her legs folded underneath her constantly and smoking. However true that may be, I don’t know. Maybe my grandmother was just trying to scare me into sitting properly, but it sure stuck with me!

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:54:01 +0000

“…and a poor bout of circulation which could be common in people like myself who sit on their legs constantly.”

I’m an artist’s model for the art department of my university, so I sit in the same position for about half an hour at a time and my legs often fall asleep to the point where I can’t walk normally for several minutes. Does doing that make it likely for me to have these problems?

By: Alzaetia

Alzaetia — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:13:49 +0000

Considering the nature of blood clots, I think sitting on your ass all day probably increases your risk more than having large hips if you’re active.

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:10:11 +0000

I know a ratio of 0.7 (waist divided by hips) is considered ideal for both prevention of heart disease and attractiveness in women. Larger hips are also good for fertility and there’s even some evidence that suggests that larger hipped women have more intelligent babies.

I would like to see what sort of numbers they’re talking about too. Are they talking about a 0.7 ratio or something lower? In any case, this is just one issue so even if they say a ratio of 0.6 or whatever is better for preventing venous thrombosis that doesn’t mean we should be trying to slim our hips down necessarily because the 0.7 ratio is still considered better for preventing a host of other medical conditions including arterial thrombosis, heart attack, stroke, infertility, and a number of other diseases commonly associated with obesity.

By: Zelda

Zelda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:40:22 +0000

Good question: I’m thinking it’s a waist-to-hip ratio thing… like the way the opposite balance is for diabetes?

By: Sydney

Sydney — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:02:00 +0000

What exactly is considered “large hips”?

I’m skinny, but my hips and butt are large for my body size. Like, they are way out of proportion with my teeny tiny boobs and small waist. So, am I at a greater risk or what?