How can the elderly avoid blockage of blood vessels in their legs and say goodbye to "old cold legs"

Most patients with leg blood vessel blockage are elderly people, and the earliest symptom is leg swelling. In fact, it is the blocked blood vessels that cause poor blood flow. The blood cannot flow back effectively, which leads to blood stasis over a long period of time, resulting in limb swelling. So, how can we avoid leg blood vessel blockage?

Lower limb arteriosclerosis and occlusive disease

In many people's impressions, if middle-aged and elderly people experience numbness, coldness, pain, difficulty walking and other discomforts in the legs and feet, most of them are caused by calcium deficiency or bone hyperplasia, and they can be cured by taking more calcium. In fact, this is not the case. Clinical observations have found that many middle-aged and elderly people who complain of "leg pain" do not have obvious calcium deficiency, and bone hyperplasia is not very serious. The real cause of their "leg pain" is limb ischemia caused by vascular stenosis or occlusion. Leg ischemia caused by stenosis or occlusion of the lower limb arteries (lower limb artery occlusion) is the manifestation of arteriosclerosis in the lower limbs. Among the elderly over 70 years old, the incidence of lower limb artery occlusion is as high as 15% to 20%. If the patient has severe walking difficulties, toe pain at night, and other symptoms, he or she should receive surgery in time to restore blood supply to the affected limb. There are three main surgical methods: traditional surgery, endovascular interventional therapy, and combined surgical treatment (traditional surgery combined with interventional therapy).

Thrombophlebitis

Thigh vein blockage can lead to thrombophlebitis, which is an acute, non-purulent inflammatory lesion of the veins, accompanied by secondary intravascular thrombosis. The lesions mainly affect the superficial veins of the limbs and the deep veins of the lower limbs. The main clinical manifestations are local swelling and pain in the affected limb, tender cord-like objects can be felt under the skin, or accompanied by varicose veins of the superficial veins of the affected limb, and pulmonary embolism can occur due to thrombus detachment. Patients with deep phlebitis have a sudden onset of disease, with pitting swelling in the affected limb, dark red skin, extensive venous dilatation or varicose veins, and capillary dilatation; in the later stage, nutritional changes occur, accompanied by stasis dermatitis, pigmentation or superficial ulcers, and the circumference of the thigh and leg is more than 1 cm thicker than the healthy limb. The swelling and pain worsen when walking and are relieved after lying down. Venography can show stenosis or blockage of the deep veins in the affected limb.

So how can the elderly avoid blockage of blood vessels in the legs?

1. Lift your heels when going up the stairs and use your legs to support your body weight. This can eliminate excess fat on the inner thighs and buttocks.

2. When sitting on a chair, press your calves together, count to 8, and then switch legs. Repeat this action without stopping your breathing. This can exercise the lines of your calves.

3. When watching TV, sit on a chair without bending your knees. Lift one leg and then put it down. Repeat this action 8-10 times and then switch to the other leg. This can remove the fat on both sides of the thighs.

4. When walking, speed up and take bigger steps as possible, so that all the muscles in the legs can be exercised. Simply put, walk vigorously. Usually, you should prevent the affected limb from getting cold, damp and trauma, strictly prohibit smoking, often raise the affected limb, avoid standing for a long time, walking for a long time, etc. Avoid spicy and irritating foods. Eat more high-protein and high-vitamin foods and avoid greasy foods.