Jambes Lourdes - Heavy Legs

French TV is full of adverts for treatment of a dreaded syndrome - Heavy Legs.

Fi and I had never even heard of the malady of Heavy Legs until we started watching french TV. Now every night we are treated to adverts showing women tiredly trudging up stairs, then, after taking product X, lightly skipping up the same stairs.

A Google search on "heavy legs" on google.com nets 460,000 results while a search on "jambes lourdes" on google.fr pulls a whopping 646,000. French menopausal women are obsessed with heavy legs.

But British women suffer too -

ANTISTAX Leg Vein Health Capsules - a clinically proven natural health supplement - asked 400 women over 45 if they suffered from problems with their legs and also asked how they felt it affected their daily lives. The results were astounding!
- 75% said they suffered with leg health issues
- 50% said they suffered with TAHLC (Tired, Aching, Heavy Legs
Complaint)
- 71% said TAHLC interfered with their daily lives
- 75% said it affected them more than the menopause!
- 75% said it affected them more than sight deterioration
- 77% expressed concern for their leg health
- 66% are concerned about the pain and discomfort caused
- 51% said they are hindered in their daily lives by having to
keep their feet up as a result
- Women over the age of 45 are more likely to suffer with TAHLC than
thread, spider or varicose veins and find TAHLC more disruptive to
their everyday lives than these other leg health problems

Most of the adverts for heavy leg remedies are herbal type snake oil stuff. The market is huge, and I am very suspicious of the efficacy of this stuff. I'm also very suspicious of surveys conducted by companies that sell a "cure"

Here is one of the more popular french remedies "Jouvence" by l'Abbé Soury.

The blurb says: the formula is based on plants (Hamamélis, Viburnum, Calamus, Piscidia) traditionally recognised for the properties against heavy legs.

Strangly, a google image search on "jambes lourdes" seems to show more "jambes svelte et legère" I feel obliged to post one for your (my) edification.

Found at http://www.italiq-expos.com/blog-shopping/2006/05/29/220-jambes-lourdes