The adverse effects of corsets/waist cinchers

If you are fashionable, you would have either have used or have heard of corsets or more recently, waist cinchers. Celebs like Kim Kardashian and Nigeria's Toolz Oniru are known to wear them for that hourglass figure to be more accentuated.  According to research, tightly-laced corset would affect the positioning of the liver, lungs, and stomach inside the body.

What are some of the side effects of waist cinching?

Some corsets are so tight that they sometimes women pass out.  Yes you read that right. You could faint from wearing corsets. Some scholars think that the tradition of women swooning all the time is also related to corsets, which would restrict breathing and blood flow and cause lightheadedness. This study is not to stop people from wearing them entirely, but it's good to know what goes on when you rock them.  They affect your bones, lungs, liver, and stomach with long term use.

 

In 1908, Dr. Ludovic O'Followell published Le Corset, a book dedicated to the health impact on women made by corsets.
 These x-rays (pictured) show the effects of long-term corset wearing and tightlacing on the body. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, corsets weren't simply worn to sculpt the figure for one evening. Instead, they were intended to permanently change the shape of the body so that it would retain the hourglass shape, even if a corset wasn't being worn. Women would start wearing them at a young age, and their bones and organs would adjust accordingly. Check out the shape of the ribs in the x-rays below.



There's one thing about the x-rays to take into consideration: it's unclear if the x-rays were taken while the women wore the corsets, or if the boning of the corsets was painted in later. Either way, the strange formation of the ribs is quite real.

The bones weren't the only things that corsets compressed, just the only things visible via x-ray. Organs like the lungs, liver, and stomach were also affected by tightlacing. Some extreme tightlacers could, as a result, only breathe using the top portions of their lungs, causing the lower portions to fill with mucus.

Corsets had fallen out of favor for everyday wear by the 1920s. People still wear corsets today, but usually only for special events or costuming. We now have a better understanding of the health risks associated with squeezing your insides together, causing most of today's corsets to be made with comfort, safety, and mobility in mind.

So wear your corsets with care ladies.
:-)

Image Credits: O'Followell, Le Corset, via Wikimedia Commons