Millions shrug off the problem as merely part of the ageing process, but despite its name, there's nothing 'peripheral' or unimportant about this disease.
About one in five people over the age of 65 develop the aches, pains and risks of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a circulation problem that can cause intermittent of claudication, a sort of 'angina of the legs' - clogged arteries that cause sharp pain when you move and even, in later stages, when you lie down to rest. Your legs and feet may grow cold, numb or even discoloured. You may develop sores that won't heal (due to reduced blood flow and a lack of oxygen and nutrients to mend the tissue and fight infection). The long-term risk once PAD becomes painful, your odds of having a fatal heart attack or stroke within ten years rise to nearly 50 percent.
A slow, progressive disorder of the blood vessels throughout the body, PAD is another manifestation of atherosclerosis, a generalised 'furring up' and hardening of the arteries around the body. So the chances are that if you have PAD, you also have narrowed arteries in your heart and brain - which is why you have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
The same risk factors that contribute to atherosclerosis elsewhere also underlie PAD - smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, diabetes and a high-fat diet. The good news? Just as changing your lifestyle can help to keep the arteries in your heart clear and help to control blood pressure, so adopting healthier habits can improve the flow of blood through the miles of blood vessels that supply every cell in your body with oxygen and nutrients.
So if you start to feel even the mildest symptoms of PAD - a cramping pain in your calves when you walk that gets better when you rest or slow down - take it as an early warning sign that should be heeded. If the arteries in your legs are clogging up, so too probably are those in the rest of your body.
Just one in four people with PAD know it - and tell their doctors. Half haven't experienced the classic aching fatigue in the muscles of the thigh, buttocks or calves that may grow worse over the months or years. Many who have felt it never tell the doctor, and often , those who do don't get the urgent head-to-toe care they need to stop PAD in its tracks before it's too late.
You need more than pain relief if you have PAD. Fortunately, all the lifestyle steps that protect your heart can slow, stop or even reverse this all-over artery clogging so you can walk where you want, when you want and cut your risk of heart attack and stroke. You may also need medication - but don't wait for your doctor to offer it. In one shocking university study of 553 people with PAD, only those who'd had heart problems in the past got all the cholesterol and blood pressure-lowering medication they needed - even though every person in the study was at high risk.
If you've had unexplained leg pain for at least a week, see your doctor. If you know you have PAD or other related circulation problems-or would like to avoid them-the steps on the pages that follow can help.
To beat peripheral arterial disease
Stop smoking The best strategy to quit? A combination of nicotine-replacement products, a prescription antidepressant and counselling. It's worth it. It one study, smokers with PAD who kicked the habit doubled or even tripled their pain-free walking distance. In another, 16 percent of smokers who didn't quit went on to develop severe PAD in just few years, compared with none of those who quit. Ditching the cigarettes also lowers the risk of amputation (about 4 percent of people with PAD eventually require this grisly procedure) and cuts your odds of having a heart attack or stroke.
Walk, walk, walk We know it hurts. But this is one time when pushing yourself a little (but not too much) does yield real benefits. That's because after quitting smoking, exercise is the most powerful move you can make to cut the pain and immobility PAD can cause - and to reverse the artery clogging that makes it worse.
Exercise works its magic by lowering levels of inflammation in the bloodstream, making the artery walls more flexible, and improving the way the muscles use oxygen. It encourages smaller blood vessels in the legs to open up, and new ones to develop, helping to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to hungry muscles.
Walking had been shown to be the best exercise to help PAD, as long as you do it regularly. That means a daily walk, or at least a walk on most days of the week, of about 30-60 minutes. Start by walking until you get the pain, then have a rest, then start again. Next, try to push yourself a little further, walking through the pain for a short time. You can't damage your muscles and this will encourage blood vessels to grow. If you have trouble sticking with a daily walking routine, try to find a walking companinon in your neighbourhood. Studies have shown that most people with PAD can stop symptoms getting worse if they quit smoking and exercise regularly, and most experience an improvement in symptoms and an increase in the distance they can walk without pain - which also means they have a lowered risk of heart attack and stroke. People who walk for less than 90 minutes a week may see their symptoms, get worse, on the other hand. Be patient; it may take six months or more to see dramatic benefits. And if you can walk for longer than 30 minutes do so. Some experts say that hour-long session ultimately provide more pain relief.
Make all your dairy foods fat-free Fight clogged arteries by getting rid of the building material for gunky plaque: LDL cholesterol. The body uses saturated fats to build cholesterol particles, and we get most of the saturated fats in our diets from milk, cheese, ice cream and yoghurt. Promise, rightnow, that you'll buy only dairy products labelled 'skimmed' or 'fat-free'. (If you love margarine, look for brands that contain low saturated fats and no artery-blocking trans fats.)
Invest in sharp kitchen scissors - and then use them It's far easier to trim away globs of fat clinging to pork chops, chicken breasts and steaks with scissors than with a knife. Kitchen scissors needn't be expensive; just make sure they're sharp so the job's fast and easy. Cutting fat off meat (and removing skin from poultry) will subtract another substantial source of saturated fat from your diet - a move your arteries will love.
Evening munchies? Snack on walnuts, not ice cream Enjoying a small handful of these nutty nuggets every evening may seem luxurious, but the good fats in these yummy morsels have a unique ability
Part of the elixir of long life is frequent,
pleasurable walks
(rare among foods) to raise your HDL cholesterol. You could see a two to three point rise in HDL that will cut your risk of heart attack and stroke by up to 18 percent.
Double up your servings of fruit and veg every day Compounds found in fruits and veg can help to prevent the artery clogging that causes PAD and worsens it. How? Antioxidants shield particles of 'bad' LDL cholesterol from oxidation by rogue oxygen molecules called free radicals. Oxidised LDL starts the chain of biochemical events that leads to the formation of gunky, blood vessel-narrowing plaque in artery walls.
Sip orange juice at breakfast and crunch a spinach salad at lunch Nothing's easier than grabbing a carton of 100 percent orange juice and a bag of pre-washed spinach leaves at the supermarket. Both are rich sources of folate, a B vitamin that helps to lower high levels of heart-threatening homocysteine in people with PAD. And both supply vitamin C - an inflammation-fighting antioxidants that seems to be depleted swiftly in the bodies of people with more severe PAD, say researchers from University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium.
Try ginkgo The herbal remedy ginkgo biloba can improve circulation. Studies in people with PAD have shown that it may increase the distance they can walk before the pain sets in.
About one in five people over the age of 65 develop the aches, pains and risks of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a circulation problem that can cause intermittent of claudication, a sort of 'angina of the legs' - clogged arteries that cause sharp pain when you move and even, in later stages, when you lie down to rest. Your legs and feet may grow cold, numb or even discoloured. You may develop sores that won't heal (due to reduced blood flow and a lack of oxygen and nutrients to mend the tissue and fight infection). The long-term risk once PAD becomes painful, your odds of having a fatal heart attack or stroke within ten years rise to nearly 50 percent.
A slow, progressive disorder of the blood vessels throughout the body, PAD is another manifestation of atherosclerosis, a generalised 'furring up' and hardening of the arteries around the body. So the chances are that if you have PAD, you also have narrowed arteries in your heart and brain - which is why you have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
The same risk factors that contribute to atherosclerosis elsewhere also underlie PAD - smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, diabetes and a high-fat diet. The good news? Just as changing your lifestyle can help to keep the arteries in your heart clear and help to control blood pressure, so adopting healthier habits can improve the flow of blood through the miles of blood vessels that supply every cell in your body with oxygen and nutrients.
So if you start to feel even the mildest symptoms of PAD - a cramping pain in your calves when you walk that gets better when you rest or slow down - take it as an early warning sign that should be heeded. If the arteries in your legs are clogging up, so too probably are those in the rest of your body.
Just one in four people with PAD know it - and tell their doctors. Half haven't experienced the classic aching fatigue in the muscles of the thigh, buttocks or calves that may grow worse over the months or years. Many who have felt it never tell the doctor, and often , those who do don't get the urgent head-to-toe care they need to stop PAD in its tracks before it's too late.
You need more than pain relief if you have PAD. Fortunately, all the lifestyle steps that protect your heart can slow, stop or even reverse this all-over artery clogging so you can walk where you want, when you want and cut your risk of heart attack and stroke. You may also need medication - but don't wait for your doctor to offer it. In one shocking university study of 553 people with PAD, only those who'd had heart problems in the past got all the cholesterol and blood pressure-lowering medication they needed - even though every person in the study was at high risk.
If you've had unexplained leg pain for at least a week, see your doctor. If you know you have PAD or other related circulation problems-or would like to avoid them-the steps on the pages that follow can help.
To beat peripheral arterial disease
Stop smoking The best strategy to quit? A combination of nicotine-replacement products, a prescription antidepressant and counselling. It's worth it. It one study, smokers with PAD who kicked the habit doubled or even tripled their pain-free walking distance. In another, 16 percent of smokers who didn't quit went on to develop severe PAD in just few years, compared with none of those who quit. Ditching the cigarettes also lowers the risk of amputation (about 4 percent of people with PAD eventually require this grisly procedure) and cuts your odds of having a heart attack or stroke.
Walk, walk, walk We know it hurts. But this is one time when pushing yourself a little (but not too much) does yield real benefits. That's because after quitting smoking, exercise is the most powerful move you can make to cut the pain and immobility PAD can cause - and to reverse the artery clogging that makes it worse.
Exercise works its magic by lowering levels of inflammation in the bloodstream, making the artery walls more flexible, and improving the way the muscles use oxygen. It encourages smaller blood vessels in the legs to open up, and new ones to develop, helping to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to hungry muscles.
Walking had been shown to be the best exercise to help PAD, as long as you do it regularly. That means a daily walk, or at least a walk on most days of the week, of about 30-60 minutes. Start by walking until you get the pain, then have a rest, then start again. Next, try to push yourself a little further, walking through the pain for a short time. You can't damage your muscles and this will encourage blood vessels to grow. If you have trouble sticking with a daily walking routine, try to find a walking companinon in your neighbourhood. Studies have shown that most people with PAD can stop symptoms getting worse if they quit smoking and exercise regularly, and most experience an improvement in symptoms and an increase in the distance they can walk without pain - which also means they have a lowered risk of heart attack and stroke. People who walk for less than 90 minutes a week may see their symptoms, get worse, on the other hand. Be patient; it may take six months or more to see dramatic benefits. And if you can walk for longer than 30 minutes do so. Some experts say that hour-long session ultimately provide more pain relief.
Make all your dairy foods fat-free Fight clogged arteries by getting rid of the building material for gunky plaque: LDL cholesterol. The body uses saturated fats to build cholesterol particles, and we get most of the saturated fats in our diets from milk, cheese, ice cream and yoghurt. Promise, rightnow, that you'll buy only dairy products labelled 'skimmed' or 'fat-free'. (If you love margarine, look for brands that contain low saturated fats and no artery-blocking trans fats.)
Invest in sharp kitchen scissors - and then use them It's far easier to trim away globs of fat clinging to pork chops, chicken breasts and steaks with scissors than with a knife. Kitchen scissors needn't be expensive; just make sure they're sharp so the job's fast and easy. Cutting fat off meat (and removing skin from poultry) will subtract another substantial source of saturated fat from your diet - a move your arteries will love.
Evening munchies? Snack on walnuts, not ice cream Enjoying a small handful of these nutty nuggets every evening may seem luxurious, but the good fats in these yummy morsels have a unique ability
Part of the elixir of long life is frequent,
pleasurable walks
(rare among foods) to raise your HDL cholesterol. You could see a two to three point rise in HDL that will cut your risk of heart attack and stroke by up to 18 percent.
Double up your servings of fruit and veg every day Compounds found in fruits and veg can help to prevent the artery clogging that causes PAD and worsens it. How? Antioxidants shield particles of 'bad' LDL cholesterol from oxidation by rogue oxygen molecules called free radicals. Oxidised LDL starts the chain of biochemical events that leads to the formation of gunky, blood vessel-narrowing plaque in artery walls.
Sip orange juice at breakfast and crunch a spinach salad at lunch Nothing's easier than grabbing a carton of 100 percent orange juice and a bag of pre-washed spinach leaves at the supermarket. Both are rich sources of folate, a B vitamin that helps to lower high levels of heart-threatening homocysteine in people with PAD. And both supply vitamin C - an inflammation-fighting antioxidants that seems to be depleted swiftly in the bodies of people with more severe PAD, say researchers from University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium.
Try ginkgo The herbal remedy ginkgo biloba can improve circulation. Studies in people with PAD have shown that it may increase the distance they can walk before the pain sets in.
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