Clothing Items That Are Bad For Your Health (& Items You Should Wear More Often)

Waist trainers are a fad of late, but that doesn't mean that they're great for you. In fact, it might be quite the opposite. Waist trainers work by squeezing, sweating, and shrinking, according to Healthline. But squeezed or compressed fat or tissue doesn't just go away — it has to stay somewhere in your body, which means that it's encroaching on other organs' territories. 

Waist trainers, and most shapewear, can worsen acid reflux, heartburn, irritable bowel syndrome, or even restrict your breathing to where it can cause dizziness and light-headedness, says neurologist Orly Avitzur M.D. to AARP. These are all due to the fact that the gases and liquids in your body just don't have the space to move freely when restricted by shapewear. 

Avitzur further shares that wearing the wrong size shapewear is one of the biggest reasons people have problems with it, so simply making sure you're in the right size will help. She also suggests you wear waist trainers or shapewear as little as possible: "Think of corsets and Spanx like high-heeled shoes — a pair of fantastic stilettos. Restrict these undergarments to special events, but then take them off immediately."

While the fashion industry has declared that "skinny jeans are dead" there are even more reasons than just fashion alone to ditch your skinny jeans. Tighter-than-normal jeans have been linked to bacterial vaginosis, irritation, and yeast infections according to Dr. Axe. One study published in the Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease found that women who wear skinny jeans more than four times per week had twice the risk of developing vulvodynia, a condition causing pain in the outer parts of a woman's genitalia. 

Skinny jeans can also lead to compartment syndrome and nerve damage if worn for extended periods of time — especially if worn during exercise or when it is particularly hot outside (via Dr. Axe). And it's not just theoretical either –- an article published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry speaks of a young woman that developed foot numbness after long hours of helping her family during a move while wearing skinny jeans. Additionally, skinny or tight jeans can also negatively impact fertility for men, abdominal pain, and back pain from your posture being affected. 

Think of your pajamas just like everyday clothes –- if you wear them for eight hours, you'll likely wash them. While you might not have ventured outside or worked in them, your jammies are still getting dirty. Leanne Stapf, COO of The Cleaning Authority, says, "In addition to the buildup of overnight perspiration, our skin is constantly shedding. Those dead skin cells coupled with the germs accumulated from daily activities are now being transferred to your pajamas." (via Well+Good). 

If that doesn't sound gross enough, ErgoFlex, a mattress company based in the U.K., found that, on average, men changed their pajamas every 13 days while women went even further to an average of 17 days! While it might not seem like a big deal to some (especially if you shower every night before putting pajamas on), our bodies can harbor bacteria that can be detrimental to our health if left to linger. Professor Sally Bloomfield of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine tells Good Housekeeping that many of us carry the staphylococcus bacteria, which cause infections if they enter open wounds, and E. coli, which can cause urinary infections. 

Consider laundering your pajamas every three nights to keep them fresh. If you shower every night before bed, that time can be extended to one week — but no longer. If you're wearing pajamas without underwear, throw your pajamas in the wash every day or wear a new pair each night.

Health shares that, in theory, since thongs are only touching your own body, you won't be catching anything you don't already have. Even so, some women do see an increase in urinary tract infections and yeast infections when they wear thongs, so if you have a history of infections or a weakened immune system, you might want to rethink your choice of underwear. 

What happens is that when you have an ill-fitting thong, it can cause irritation and chaffing at your vagina and the skin surrounding it, which opens you up for infections to enter (per Health). Additionally, if your thong is freely moving from the rectum to the vagina, it can take fecal bacteria with it and introduce it to the vagina. Although those areas are both parts of your body, the vagina is just more sensitive to invaders and can develop infections easier. 

Diaper bags, laptop bags, oversized shoulder bags, and large backpacks –- what do they all have in common? They're huge, and they're putting a strain on your back. HuffPost says that heavy bags are a "national epidemic," and we have to agree. Because women's oversized bags — like diaper bags, laptop bags, and huge purses — are usually designed to be carried only on one shoulder, your body has to carry an imbalanced load. 

Health and wellness Expert Caleb Backe tells Healthline, "Over time, the amount of strain that we put on our bodies due to oversized bags can cause some pretty serious pain and even long-term issues like muscle spasms or a pinched nerve." Make sure that you're only carrying around only what is necessary, and try to minimize the amount of each thing that you're carrying. Also, look for ways to creatively shrink your bag, such as using a pill organizer to only take a few pills at a time instead of the whole bottle or using smaller, travel-sized bottles of lotion or hand sanitizer. 

Just like tight-fitting shapewear or jeans can cause problems, leggings can harbor bacteria because they're so tight-fitting on your body and you usually use them for arduous activities such as running or going to the gym. If you wear them more than one day in a row, or even for just many hours, you may be putting yourself at risk for fungal infections like ringworm or vaginal yeast infections explains dermatologist Dr. Josh Zeichner to Cosmopolitan. 

Infections may not be your only problem though –- leggings are tight and form-fitting and thus pose some of the same problems as corsets or shapewear. "When we wear really tight, high-waisted leggings that prevent us from allowing our abdominals to lengthen properly with an inhale, we can develop a 'reversed' breathing pattern," says Hayley Kava, a physical therapist, "which can, in turn, cause us to keep our pelvic floor muscles 'tense' in response to the increase in pressure with our breath." (via PopSugar). Reversed breathing, also called paradoxical breathing, can lead to shortness of breath, hypersomnia, fatigue, decreased exercise performance, and abnormally fast breathing, according to Healthline. So it's even possible that the workout leggings you wore to your fitness class could have caused you to do worse!

An ill-fitting bra will usually leave you with reddened skin or an uncomfortable sensation. But it might be even worse than that. Wearing the wrong size bra on a daily or regular basis can cause back and neck strain, headaches, bad posture, and irreversible damage to ligaments in your breasts and chest, according to Panache, a lingerie brand. 

The entire point of wearing a bra in the first place is to have it support your breasts and take some strain off of your back and shoulders. But if your bra isn't the proper size, which is especially common for women who are wearing larger cup sizes, it can instead be hurting you. In fact, Panache states that it's even possible to start out with a great-fit bra, but as it ages, it supports your breasts less and less, which puts strain on your back.

If you're particularly drippy when you exercise, opt for a towel instead of sweatbands. While you'll have to do the wiping yourself, a towel actually removes the sweat from your body instead of keeping it trapped in one place. 

Towel Supercenter offers some tips when it comes to choosing a towel for your next workout session. Look for a towel made of cotton, microfiber, bamboo, or linen — these materials will have the best absorbency and durability. Go for a thinner towel with less fabric density, so your towel dries quickly so as not to hold in or harbor bacteria. Find a towel that has longer fibers, as the longer the fiber is the more absorbent the towel. Lastly, go for something soft — nobody wants to be wiping their face or neck with an itchy towel. Make sure that you're washing and drying your towel after each workout session or use, too. 

Sajid A. Surve, D.O., tells the AOA that there are a few things you can do to counteract the effects of wearing high heels, like stretching your feet and legs. You can do this after you've taken your shoes off at the end of the day or during the time you're wearing your high heels. Of course, you could just not wear heels at all (or wear shorter heels), but if you still want the height, consider a platform heel to limit the distance and height difference between the front and back of your foot. 

Hylton Menz, a podiatrist and professor of biomechanics at La Trobe University in Australia, tells Time that, "The healthiest footwear for both older and younger adults should fit well and have a low, broad heel ..." Both Health and The New York Post list some platforms as the most comfortable heels, and Web MD says that if you're not willing to sacrifice height, platforms are the best option to stand in for stilettos. 

Today lists the best fibers for your skin: cotton, silk, linen, cashmere, and hemp. There is a note to be careful of even these natural fibers though — watch out for clothing that is heavily dyed or has deep colors, such as blue, purple, or red,  as they may still be irritating to your skin due to the dyeing process. 

Although there are no current federal regulations in place for the textile industry and its processes, Today says you can be on the lookout for the Oeko-Tex Certification that confirms that a particular brand or piece has been independently tested for "ecological practices and safety of textile products." Look for clothing that is made of 100% of any of the above-mentioned materials or even a combination of them. Cotton, linen, and hemp will be your more affordable options, and silk, cashmere, and merino wool are more expensive. 

One other piece of clothing that we do urge you to wear are socks. Not wearing socks on a regular basis can actually lead to stinkier feet than if you are wearing them. What happens to your feet when you stop wearing socks? Since your socks can soak up some of the sweat and hold in any shed skin, not wearing your socks will deposit all of that sweat and skin inside of your shoes or on the surfaces that you walk on. This not only makes your shoes stinky and gross but the next time you wear those shoes, you'll be picking all that stuff up again on your feet. Eww.

If you get stinky socks on a regular basis, the solution is not to simply stop wearing them. Instead, consider investing in some foot deodorant or visiting a doctor to inquire about why your feet sweat so often or so pungently.