Do you experience pain in your legs even when walking for a short distance? Do you become breathless easily? A Peripheral arterial disease might be the reason behind it. It is a common problem of blood flow in which fat deposits in the arteries, reducing the blood flow to your legs and occasionally to the arms. In this blog, we will discuss the symptoms of peripheral arterial disease in El Paso.
- Pain in legs – People have leg pain on walking even a very short distance(claudication), with muscle pain, cramping in legs and arms like writing, knitting, doing house chores, mostly triggered by physical activity. It also disappears after some time resting. Pain is usually severe and even makes it difficult for you to continue walking. In later stages of the disease, pain may not even spare you in resting and lying down. It may be intense enough to disrupt your sleep.
- Body parts affected – It mostly affects your legs more than your arms, hips, and thighs are also not spared.
- Cold feet – Blood is responsible for keeping us warm, and more blood flow increases the body temperature. In this case, the decreased blood flow to the legs causes your feet to turn cold and even sometimes your hands too.
- Pulse rate- As it’s a defect in blood flow, decreased blow leads to reduced pulse or a weak pulse in your legs or feet.
- Healing – Do you have any unhealed injuries? Every injury requires adequate blood flow to heal. A peripheral arterial disease might cause an unhealed wound, further worsening with leg numbness and weakness and soreness in toes and feet.
- Change in color – Whenever a body part lacks blood supply, it starts changing its color, leading to bluish discoloration of your legs and even the skin turning shiny and dry.
- Other Symptoms – Some uncommon symptoms include slower growth of toenails, erectile dysfunction in men(infertility), hair loss, or slower hair growth on feet and legs.
- Relief- Pain may be relieved by hanging your legs over the edges of your bed or taking a short rest in between activities like walking.
Conclusion
If you have any such symptoms, do not wait for them to worsen, do not dismiss them as a normal part of aging. Do consult your doctor and book an appointment. Different medications and treatment modalities, and surgeries are available to help you.
