I'm A Surgeon ― Shiny Skin On Your Lower Legs Can Reveal Heart Health Issues

Music fans may have wondered just how their favourite singers get their legs so, so shiny on stage. 

But if your legs look lacquered without the need for complicated outfits, surgeon, author, and lecturer Dr Karan Rajan has news. 

In a TikTok, he Stitched a video of a man marvelling over the near-reflective skin on his legs.

“I got this shiny reptilian... I have no idea why it’s like this,” the original creator said. 

So what’s going on?

Dr Rajan didn’t want to diagnose the person who filmed his shiny legs, especially through a screen. After all, he says, “I’m not their doctor and I don’t have any background information.” 

But he added, “I’m a surgeon and I’ve seen shiny hairless legs in many patients over the years.” 

If a similar case showed up with one of his patients, the doctor shared he “would investigate whether they had any issues with poor blood flow.” 

More specifically, he’d look for peripheral arterial disease ― a condition which happens when plaque builds up in a person’s arteries, narrowing them and restricting circulation. 

The lower legs are especially likely to be affected by this as the further away a body part is from the heart, the less strong its blood supply is likely to be. 

“The skin can become tight and thin” thanks to wasting muscle, while hairlessness can be attributed to the decrease in blood (and therefore oxygen and nutrients), Dr Rajan explained.

Risk factors for circulation issues include smoking, having diabetes, having high blood pressure, being older, having a family history of heart problems, and “even ethnicity.” 

So are shiny legs definitely proof I have circulation issues?

No. The doctor explains, “There can be a long list of conditions which look like something else, and sometimes, what looks abnormal in someone can be completely normal in someone else.” 

That’s why diagnosis, especially for chronic conditions, can be so tricky, the doctor says. 

The NHS shared other symptoms of peripheral arterial disease. These include: 

• hair loss on your legs and feet
• numbness or weakness in the legs
• brittle, slow-growing toenails
• ulcers (open sores) on your feet and legs, which do not heal
• changing skin colour on your legs, such as turning paler than usual or blue – this may be harder to see on brown and black skin
• shiny skin
• in men, erectile dysfunction
• the muscles in your legs shrinking (wasting)

You should see a GP if you notice these signs and/or feel recurring leg pain when exercising, they write.