what causes feet and ankles to swell up
Perhaps yous're just on your feet a lot, just the swelling besides could signal a potentially serious condition.
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Anyone tin feel swollen feet from time to time. It'south common — especially subsequently walking or standing for long periods — and information technology'south often remedied by resting and elevating those tired dogs.
Sometimes, however, swelling (also called edema) is a cerise flag for a more serious underlying problem.
"My approach is to consider potential problems in each of the trunk's systems, such as the heart and blood vessels, bones, and skin," explains Dr. James Ioli, chief of podiatry services at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-editor of the Harvard Special Wellness Written report Healthy Feet (/fcb).
Vascular causes
When you are on your anxiety a lot, gravity pulls blood into the veins of your legs, and some of the water in the blood enters the tissues of your legs and anxiety, causing them to great. But there are too some conditions that tin cause like swelling considering they affect the movement of fluids within the body.
Venous insufficiency. Valves in the veins of our legs keep claret from being pulled downwards past gravity and pooling in the leg veins. As we historic period, those valves age, too, and may function less efficiently. This is a mutual cause of swollen feet.
Phlebitis. This painful inflammation of the veins can cause bloated feet and also leg hurting.
Deep-vein thrombosis. In this condition, claret clots form in the deep veins of the legs. The clots cake the return of claret from the legs to the heart, causing swelling of the legs and feet. This tin exist very serious if information technology is not diagnosed and treated promptly: the claret clots can break loose and travel in the blood to the lungs, causing a condition called pulmonary embolism. This can cause breathlessness, pain with breathing, and even death. Unremarkably, the clots occur in simply 1 leg, and and then simply one leg is unusually swollen. While a new swelling of both legs and feet often is not serious, new swelling of merely one leg is always something to bring to your doctor.
Heart failure. A failing middle does non pump as finer as it should. As a result, blood in the leg veins that should exist pumped back to the heart instead pools in the veins.
Liver disease. Some liver diseases can lead to low blood levels of a protein called albumin, which is made in the liver. Low albumin levels cause fluid in the blood to pass into the tissues, producing swelling not only of the legs and feet merely also other parts of the trunk, such as the hands and face.
Kidney illness. Fluid can build upwardly in the tissues if affliction makes it difficult for the kidneys to get rid of excess fluid in the body (i of the main functions of the kidneys).
Sometimes, swelling in the feet is the first clue that you take heart failure or liver or kidney illness, and your doctor needs to consider those possibilities. Your doctor will take a medical history and exercise a thorough physical examination that includes your heart and lungs. The doctor may order blood and urine tests, a chest x-ray, an electrocardiogram, or other tests.
Other causes
Sometimes swollen feet have causes that are not directly related to the flow of body fluids. For case:
Bone and tendon conditions. Several problems with the bones and tendons in your anxiety besides can crusade swelling, although (in contrast to the vascular causes) they also typically cause pain. Examples include fractures, arthritis, and tendinitis.
Problems with the skin and toenails. Every bit nosotros age, our skin thins. That makes skin more vulnerable to cuts, which so tin can become infected, causing swelling of the area near the wound. A cut on the foot tin can cause the whole foot to swell. Ingrown toenails that dig into the pare also can lead to sores and swelling.
Drug side furnishings. Some medications, such equally calcium-channel blockers to treat loftier blood force per unit area, tin can also exist the culprit.
What you should do
A little foot swelling is probably zippo to worry about. If you go off your anxiety and prop them upwardly on a footstool, the swelling should disappear over several hours.
When should you call the physician? "Report your symptoms to your medico if in that location's so much swelling that it leaves an indentation if you press your finger into it, or if it has developed suddenly, lasts for more than a few days, affects just one foot, or is accompanied by pain or discoloration of the skin," Dr. Ioli advises.
Finally, don't make your ain diagnosis. With so many potential reasons for swelling, it's important to let your medico drill downwardly to the cause, prescribe the treatment you need, and aid you lot get dorsum on your feet equally soon as possible.
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Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/whats-causing-those-swollen-feet
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