Video: One Factor for Hip and Leg Pain

LIVERMORE — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you carry your wallet in your back pocket and begin experiencing hip and leg pain, the two might be related. Today, we’re in Livermore with Diamond Certified Expert Dr. Jag Dhesi of Springtown Wellness Center to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Dr. Jag Dhesi: There’s a lot of things we’ve seen in the office on a regular basis and the most common thing is actually pain in the hip and down the leg, more often times in the right. And the biggest culprit of that is actually a wallet in the back pocket. The simple reason being, when you drive, in order for the hip to physically press the gas pedals, it tips back a tad. So, you can press gas and brake, everything is fine and dandy.

You get out of the car and the hip pops back up and you never knew it ever happened. Now, say you sit the car, lean to the left, lean to the right, reach in the back seat. In this scenario, wear a wallet in the back pocket. When that does, the hip gets irritated because the irritation when you get out of the car, the hip does not go up, it stays back.

Because even in the office when we check you out, maybe the hip’s off a quarter inch, a half inch, three-quarter inch, whatever it may be. It’s not like the leg got shorter by the same ratio. It’s not a one to one, maybe 16th of an inch, maybe an 8th of an inch. Worst case scenario, maybe a quarter of an inch. That’s something standing or walking, you get sore, a little tighter, faster, you fatigue a little more all because you’re teetering all day.

Not to mention the fact that where the wallet sits on the butt on the guy’s pants, sits on the outside corner. Right near there is your piriformis muscle. Right around there is your sciatic nerve. Let’s say you sit funny on the wallet, you irritate the muscle. When the muscle irritates it, it spasms. When it spasms you crimp the nerve. All of a sudden, pain, numbness, tingling, and leg falling asleep because of a wallet in the back pocket. The simplest thing of a common thing causes the most trauma we see in the office today.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.