# Will rubber bands on my arms kill me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074 "2005-05-23T12:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074/1 "2005-05-23T12:49:27Z")
I’ve got a shirt with sleeves the wrong length. In order to wear it this morning, I just rolled up the sleeves. The sleeves have a bad habit of freeing themselves from their rolled-up state. I’ve stuck fairly large rubber bands on my lower biceps to keep my disorderly sleeves in line. It seems to be working, but I’m curious as to whether there would be any health implications if I did this from time to time. Any clues? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074/2 "2005-05-23T13:07:12Z")
Sounds like the coach men in England who used to suffer from weakened blood vessels because they had a tie round their lower legs to keep some item of clothing either up or down. This caused strain to their blood vessels that could go pop at any time. That is all IIRC from history class at school. Roughly describing an ailment common to coach men, mentioned because a famous surgeon carried out the first of a certain type of surgery on such a man. Sorry I can’t remember more 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074/3 "2005-05-23T13:18:16Z")
Ok. That’s enough for me. Rubber bands go away. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074/4 "2005-05-23T13:36:04Z")
I can guarantee you that you would have died within the next 150 years had you not taken those rubber bands off. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074/5 "2005-05-23T14:15:11Z")
I imagine my life is worth about $750K. Now, where do we wish to go about escrowing the funds behind that guarantee? 🙂 WAIT! I have this email in my In-Box from a South African politician. He needs help hiding $51 million. Maybe he could hold the escrow funds for us… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-rubber-bands-on-my-arms-kill-me/305074/6 "2005-05-23T18:54:02Z")
You’ve basically re-invented the sleeve garter, and according to this page, for the exact same reason. [http://www.riverjunction.com/catalog/mensfurn/sleevegarter.html](http://www.riverjunction.com/catalog/mensfurn/sleevegarter.html) HGTV says make your own: [http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc\_fabrics\_other/article/0,1793,HGTV\_3390\_1393036,00.html](http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_fabrics_other/article/0,1793,HGTV_3390_1393036,00.html) I think it depends on how tight they are. The ones above use elastic, which might be looser than rubber bands. If yours are uncomfortable, then that could be a problem.