If you’ve ever had an intense workout or just been on your feet all day, you’ll know the feeling of heavy legs. Some people have this annoying sensation all the time. If you do, there’s a good chance it’s caused by blood pooling in your legs due to poor circulation, and that’s probably due to varicose veins. So what can you do about it? Here are five tips to help alleviate those symptoms.
1. Lose Weight
Obesity causes a lot of problems throughout your body. The extra weight puts pressure on the veins in your legs, forcing the valves in your veins to work harder. This lead to them failing, causing varicose veins. Losing weight won’t fix your veins, but it will reduce the symptoms of heavy legs.
Obesity also leads to a build-up of fatty deposits in your bloodstream. This can result in blockage, which impairs blood flow. That means that a healthier diet will help to decrease blood pooling in your legs!
2. Quit Smoking
We all know that smoking is terrible for your health. One effect it has is to constrict blood vessels, leading to poor blood flow to parts of your body that need it. That doesn’t just include your legs; your hair and nails will also suffer! Eventually it will lead to leg pain, even when you’re not moving.
Smoking affects your skin, veins, and general health. Quitting won’t just improve heavy legs, you’ll feel less tired and just better throughout your body, even in the places you didn’t realize were feeling less than perfect!
3. Keep Your Legs Up
Elevating your legs to at least 6 inches above your heart will decrease the work your veins have to do to push blood back to your heart. When you’re standing or sitting, your veins have to push against gravity to get the blood back up your leg. Reversing this will let gravity help your veins push the blood down.
Make sure to do this for at least 15 minutes at a time, and ideally 3 times a day.
4. Compression Stockings
An easy way to improve your veins’ blood flow is to wear compression garments. They apply pressure at just the right places to keep your veins flowing properly. But they’re not a cure! Wearing them daily will definitely help relieve your symptoms and avoid varicose veins, but an unhealthy lifestyle can still be damaging enough to make your problems worse.
Compression garments come in a wide variety of styles and can be customized to your specific needs. Some are long socks, including ones specifically for sports. There are also many different styles and materials if you want to cater them to your tastes. Check some out here:
5. Physical Activity and Diet
Getting your heart pumping and your muscles active will improve blood flow.
There are also foods that can help. Fruits, vegetables, and healthy grains are the kinds of things that you could try adding to your diet. They have vitamins C and E, carotene, zinc, and selenium that improve the health of your circulatory system. They also help to get rid of toxins causing issues in your veins.
While these tips will help relieve the symptoms of your heavy legs, they won’t fix the cause. If you want to permanently get rid of the problem, you will need to see a professional vein doctor. If you have varicose veins, you might need to have them removed. There are several options for this, and your doctor will let you know which is best for you at your consultation. The longer you let these issues go on, the worse they’ll get.
So to avoid the more serious interventions, and instead get an easy non-surgical option, contact Dr. Imami for your free consultation today!