A variety of issues can cause swelling in your lower extremities on occasion, forcing you to look for a solution for treating swollen feet. If it’s hot outside, you may have even experienced swollen feet and ankles after a long day of walking or standing.
However, being on your feet for too long may not be the only cause of feet swelling, ankle swelling, or leg swelling — called “edema.” Ankle swelling after sitting all day is also a possibility for many patients, in this camp.
Treating Swollen Feet from Venous Insufficiency
Blood builds up in your legs when your veins aren’t functioning properly, causing venous insufficiency and making many victims search high and low for answers to treating swollen feet. Gravity exerts the entire weight of the blood volume in our bodies on the veins in our legs, as humans stand on two feet.
As a result of our veins’ valves, the force of gravity is counteracted in our veins in order to maintain a low blood pressure and allow blood to return to our hearts. We can develop incompetent vein valves over time, allowing blood to flow backwards when they are no longer working properly — imposing painful ankle swelling at the end of the day.
There are a variety of symptoms associated with venous insufficiency, including swelling, varicose veins, leg pain or cramping, red, weepy, hard skin (called “lipodermatosclerosis”), or slow-healing wounds or ulcers.
It may be necessary to modify your lifestyle, such as losing weight and moving around a lot to keep your blood flowing. The use of compression therapy – including socks, stockings, athletic sleeves, wraps, or complex pneumatic machines – can also be helpful. In all cases, the key is that they apply pressure in a graduated manner so that ankle pressure is greater than knee pressure. There are also surgical treatments available.
Some Common Conditions
Common conditions such as varicose veins can lead to chronic venous insufficiency. Another possibility is when something damages the valves inside the veins, such as deep vein thrombosis. With time, the veins become weaker, making it harder for the heart to pump blood. There is a possibility that tiny valves in the veins will fail. The resulting blood pooling causes pain, swelling, and other circulation problems in the lower extremities.
Varicose veins do not always lead to chronic venous insufficiency. Women, people with high blood pressure, people with a family history of chronic venous insufficiency, people who have deep vein thrombosis in their legs, and people who spend a lot of time standing or sitting tend to suffer from this condition. If your ankles swelling after standing all day feels real and looks real, it probably is real — and the pain you’re suffering from can testify to this unfortunate fact.
Don’t Rule out Blood Clots and DVT
Having a blood clot in your veins can prevent your blood from flowing normally, also causing you to look into treating swollen feet. Deep vein thrombosis occurs when a blood clot forms deep inside the veins in the legs.
Additionally to swelling, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) causes pain and tenderness over the vein, as well as redness of the skin. As a result of DVT, blood cannot drain efficiently from the leg, and pressure builds up in the veins, forcing fluid into the surrounding tissue. By plastering the valves open, DVTs can cause long-term issues with blood flow, even after the initial clot dissolves, besides obstructing blood flow.
An embolism can become life-threatening if a DVT breaks loose and travels to the lungs. Medications can break up clots before they cause further damage, so see your doctor as soon as possible if swelling with redness or pain happens. The painful phenomenon of your ankle swelling after sitting all day can occur repeatedly because of blood clots or DVT.
Lifestyle Factors and Treating Swollen Feet
In addition to medical conditions, leg swelling can sometimes be prevented by treating swollen feet with lifestyle modifications. A salt-free diet, for example, can reduce the risk of fluid retention.
Keeping your blood flowing can also be achieved by reducing the amount of time you sit. Sedentary behavior should be avoided at all costs. Remember to move frequently during long plane or car rides, as well as during your workday.
Other Possibilities to Get Checked
Symptoms of chronic liver disease include fluid accumulation in the legs and abdomen, yellowed skin (jaundice), redness on the palms of the hands, and pale stool. In all of these, you’ll typically want to look into treating swollen feet. Additional diagnoses and help.
In a similar fashion, kidney disease can be accompanied by swelling in the lower extremities, fatigue, frequent urination, and difficulty concentrating. Talk to your doctor if you’re experiencing these symptoms.
Your legs, ankles or feet may also experience a backup of blood. In addition to chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing, fatigue or a fast heartbeat, heart disease can also lead to other symptoms. If you experience any of these, contact your physician. Seek emergency medical attention if symptoms are severe. The condition of ankles swelling after standing all day affects all sorts of individuals. It can be caused by a variety of issues.
However, during pregnancy, most women experience ankle and foot swelling. Blood flows to the heart from the abdomen, which is the final destination of the blood before it reaches the uterus, when another human is in the uterus. As a result of this compression, the vascular system can become swollen, since hormonal changes during pregnancy affect the vascular system.
When blood pressure is dangerously high during pregnancy, preeclampsia can cause excessive swelling. Also, contact your doctor if you experience severe headaches, blurred vision, abdominal pain, or incontinence.
Vessel Ablation for Treating Swollen Feet
For a broad portion of the patient population who want to properly fix their painful situation, treating swollen feet comes down to vessel ablation. Vessel ablation is a minimally invasive procedure that seals or closes veins using heat or laser energy. This procedure can treated varicose veins, spider veins, and venous insufficiency.
The two main types of vein ablation are radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and laser ablation. Doctors use a small probe to destroy unhealthy veins using radiofrequency ablation (RFA). In the presence of radiofrequency energy, the probe heats up the vein and collapses it. A laser beam heats up and collapses the vein with laser ablation.
Patients receive the majority of vessel ablation procedures on an outpatient basis. Doctors typically perform the procedure simply under local anesthesia, but they may also use general anesthesia. It is possible for the patient to experience pain, bruising, and swelling after the procedure. The symptoms usually disappear on their own within a few days. They are nothing compared to the pain endured with ankle swelling after sitting all day.
Vessel ablation helps treat varicose and spider veins. In turn, this helps to treat venous insufficiency. Minimally invasive procedures are less risky than surgery. They may be a good option for those who are not good surgical candidates or who wish to avoid surgery.
Furthermore, it’s an easy procedure that can be completed on the same day. This means you can go straight home and relax. A few days after surgery, most people can resume normal activities. Results usually last for a long time.
Get the Right Treatment You Need
Treating swollen feet should be a priority if you are experiencing any of the issues above. However, there are proactive changes you can make as well. The pain may persist until you see a doctor, because swelling (also called “edema”) is a sign of deeper underlying problems, like heart failure, deep vein thrombosis, kidney disease, or liver cirrhosis.
Identifying the cause of ankle swelling, as well as in your feet, is extremely important. Over the long run, swollen feet can even lead to heart failure. Healthy lifestyle adjustments include:
- Maintaining or increasing physical activity levels. It is important to seek the advice of a physician if you want to create and adhere to a healthy exercise routine. Excess body weight and high blood pressure may also be addressed by exercising, as well as the heart.
- Stress should be managed where possible. Meditation, therapy, and journaling are some methods for managing stress. Emotional crises can worsen heart failure symptoms for people with the disease.
- Dietary salt reduction. Processed foods, such as potato chips and prepared meals, contain high amounts of sodium. It is important not to eliminate all sodium from the diet, since the body needs some sodium to function. The recommended sodium intake per day is less than 2,300 milligrams.
- Don’t drink or smoke. People who smoke, or want to quit, should limit or avoid alcohol consumption.
Wellness and Pain Can Help
A range of options for treating swollen feet are available at Wellness and Pain. We offer conservative treatments, routine visits, and minimally invasive quick-recovery procedures. We can keep you free of problems by providing lifestyle education and care advice to help you avoid and manage issues. This is to quickly relieving the inhibiting lifestyle conditions when complications arise.
We personalize patient care plans based on each patient’s condition and unique circumstances. We can relieve pain, improve mobility and mental space, and improve your overall health.
As mentioned earlier, we have some easy procedures you can try today!
