Medically reviewed by: Luke Maj, MD
Over-exercising can exhaust your muscle tissue to the purpose the place your legs really feel like they’re fabricated from lead. However what in case your legs really feel heavy and weak on a regular basis? Heaviness within the legs isn’t simply an annoyance. It could be a symptom of a power medical situation involving poor circulation within the legs. A standard perpetrator is power venous insufficiency (CVI).
Persistent venous insufficiency vs. peripheral arterial illness
CVI develops when one-way valves within the leg veins, that are supposed to maintain blood touring again to the center, don’t work correctly. When these valves are weakened or broken, they permit blood to pool within the legs. That pooled blood explains why the legs really feel heavy and weak, and presumably, achy.
CVI isn’t life threatening, nevertheless it’s finest caught early, when life-style modifications could also be all you might want to handle the signs. Afterward, if you happen to develop varicose veins or venous ulcers, you might want medical therapy. Signs of CVI embody:
- Swelling within the legs and ankles, particularly after you stand for a very long time
- Achy or stressed legs
- A tingling sensation within the legs
- A good feeling in your calves and muscle cramping
- Tight, irritated, dry pores and skin which will itch
When you have signs of CVI, see a vein specialist sooner somewhat than later. She or he can diagnose CVI and provide therapy if essential.
Drained legs are additionally a symptom of peripheral artery illness (PAD), which is extra severe than CVI and may result in lack of toes or amputation. PAD happens when narrowed arteries within the legs cut back blood circulate. The narrowing is often the results of plaque buildup. Signs of PAD embody:
- Leg weak spot
- Leg ache or cramping that will get worse with train and higher with relaxation
- A weak pulse or lack of pulse within the ft
- Coldness or numbness within the decrease leg or foot
- Easy, shiny pores and skin
- Lack of hair on the legs
- Leg or foot sores that don’t heal
When you have any of those signs, make an appointment at The Vein Heart to be checked for PAD or CVI.
enhance blood circulation in legs
Bettering the blood circulation in your legs can go a good distance towards easing the signs of early CVI.
Elevate your legs
Sit your self down in a chair or on the sofa along with your legs propped on pillows to raise them above the extent of your coronary heart. Each time potential, do that for half-hour a number of instances a day to ease strain on the valves within the leg veins.
Flex your ft
In the event you watch TV at evening, relaxation your ft on the sofa or an ottoman and do “foot pump” (plantar flexion) workout routines: Flex your ft up and down, pointing your toes towards you after which away from you. This contracts the calf muscle tissue, sending blood out of the legs to the center.
Add some train
Train improves blood circulate within the leg veins. While you stroll, for instance, your calf muscle tissue squeeze the leg veins with each step, serving to them return blood to the center. Even quick walks may help.
Drop a few pounds if you might want to
Carrying further weight stresses the veins and damages the valves.
Put on compression clothes
Compression socks and stockings may help cut back leg ache and swelling and gradual the development of CVI. These are available a number of strengths, so ask your physician what energy you want, or come to The Vein Heart to get fitted.
If compression clothes don’t assist sufficient otherwise you discover them uncomfortable, your physician could counsel inflatable compression sleeves. You put on them in your decrease legs, they usually intermittently squeeze the legs to enhance blood circulate.
Medical CVI therapy
If life-style modifications don’t assist or you could have a extra superior case of CVI, your physician could advocate an in-office process to break down or seal off the defective leg veins. This causes the physique to reroute the blood via more healthy veins.
Procedures embody injecting the veins with an irritant answer (sclerotherapy), injecting them with a glue-like adhesive (VenaSeal) and destroying them with warmth created by a laser fiber (endogenous laser therapy) or radio waves (radiofrequency ablation).
All of those procedures are minimally invasive, and restoration time is brief. Relying on the kind of process you could have, you might be able to resume your regular actions the minute you permit your physician’s workplace.
In the event you’re experiencing leg heaviness or different signs that might point out a leg vein challenge, schedule an appointment with the Water’s Edge Dermatology Vein Heart at this time.
Written by: Jessica Brown, a well being and science author/editor based mostly in Nanuet, New York. She has written for Prevention journal, jnj.com, BCRF.org, and plenty of different shops.
