PAD is a medical condition where plaque buildup narrows the arteries supplying blood to your legs. This plaque, made of cholesterol, fat, and other substances, hardens and restricts blood flow, limiting oxygen and nutrients reaching your leg muscles.
While PAD is relatively common, especially among older adults, it’s crucial to seek treatment because untreated PAD can lead to:
- Painful leg cramps: Often described as a cramping or aching sensation in the calves, thighs, or buttocks that worsens with activity and improves with rest, this is the most common symptom.
- Tissue damage: Reduced blood flow can damage the leg tissues, causing wounds, ulcers, and even gangrene in severe cases.
- Increased risk of heart attack and stroke: PAD shares risk factors with other cardiovascular diseases, elevating your overall risk.
If you’re struggling with PAD, you might wonder if peripheral artery disease can be reversed. While studies show that PAD can be managed naturally to some extent, there is no cure for PAD. Early diagnosis and lifestyle treatments, paired with a treatment plan, are the best way to ensure that your PAD symptoms don’t worsen.
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Effectively managing PAD involves making key lifestyle changes. By adopting these changes, it’s possible to control PAD symptoms and halt the disease’s progression. Here are six lifestyle changes you can make to help stop the progression of PAD symptoms:
Six Lifestyle Changes You Can Make to Help Stop the Progression of PAD Symptoms
1. See a Professional at USA Vascular Centers
Peripheral artery disease is a serious health condition. If you’re struggling with constant pain or want to improve your everyday lifestyle, we recommend scheduling an appointment with a vascular specialist at USA Vascular Centers. Our team is here to teach you how to treat peripheral artery disease at home and make wiser PAD self-care choices during your day-to-day.
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2. Prioritize a Healthy Diet
Even though PAD can’t be completely reversed naturally, there are foods you can avoid to improve your arterial health and overall well-being. Many individuals recommend a Mediterranean diet to improve vascular health. This diet focuses on foods like fatty fish, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
You can also consider the DASH diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This diet focuses on decreasing your sodium, fat, and sugar intake. These are foods that are known to increase blood pressure and can increase inflammation.
3. Prioritize Peripheral Artery Disease Self-Care
If you’re living with PAD, you’ll want to make mindful lifestyle changes and start prioritizing peripheral artery disease self-care. Changes like eating well, quitting smoking, and limiting alcohol intake are small habits that can improve your day-to-day life. Also, making time to go on daily walks or participate in aerobic exercise can burn your body fat, raise good HDL, and lower blood pressure and sugar levels.
4. Care For Your Legs and Feet
Individuals with PAD often deal with constant pain and numbness in the legs. PAD makes it more challenging for blood to flow freely to your limbs. If you aren’t prioritizing an active lifestyle, this can make wearing shoes and exercising more challenging and painful.
To prevent swelling and pain, you’ll want to ensure your legs and feet health are cared for. Be mindful of blisters, cuts, and ingrown nails. Decreased blood flow can make it more challenging for these sores to heal quickly.
Also, know when to call a foot doctor or a vascular specialist. If you’re suffering from leg or foot pain, sores, or bunions, schedule a consultation with your doctor before something small turns into an infection.
5. Try Interval Walking
Walking in intervals is a great way to promote good blood circulation. Walk for 30 minutes daily and try to increase your walking distance before taking a break. While this training could be painful, the goal is to improve your tolerance and decrease your risk factors for PAD disease, such as blood pressure and cholesterol. Another good option is to work with a physical therapist in a walking program.
6. Combine Lifestyle Changes and Medications for Better Results
While lifestyle changes can improve your quality of life, they must be combined with treatments and medication for the best possible results. A buildup of arterial plaque is most commonly due to high bad or LDL cholesterol. Your doctor may prescribe you medication to help manage your cholesterol levels. Medical treatment combined with meaningful lifestyle and dietary changes can also help reduce the risk of PAD disease and lower cholesterol levels.
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Natural Treatment Not Recommended for PAD
Reversing peripheral artery disease using natural treatments is not recommended. In some cases, home remedies may cause more harm than good. Any relief achieved from natural treatment methods is usually temporary, and you may see a recurrence of symptoms. Most cases of PAD require medical treatment to achieve permanent symptom relief. If you continue to experience PAD symptoms like pain and discomfort in your legs or ulcers in your feet that do not quickly heal, you should consider a medical procedure.
Thanks to advancements in medical technology, minimally invasive treatment options for PAD are now available. These procedures can be performed in an outpatient setting and are often covered by insurance. If you have questions about our PAD treatments or would like to schedule an appointment, please give us a call.
Schedule a Consultation With a Vascular Expert Today
PAD is a progressive condition that can worsen over time. To prevent serious complications, consult a vascular specialist about your treatment options. Early detection, medication, and treatment can slow the progression of PAD and improve your overall health. Our team is dedicated to providing you with the utmost care and answering any questions you may have about peripheral artery disease self-care or treatment plans.
References:
[1][3] http://www.secondscount.org/heart-condition-centers/info-detail-2/what-is-arterial-plaque#.Xp08o_0zbIU
[2] https://www.healthline.com/health/heart-disease/how-to-unclog-arteries
[4] https://www.verywellhealth.com/natural-remedies-for-peripheral-artery-disease-88856
[5] https://www.webmd.com
[6] https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/can-we-reduce-vascular-plaque-buildup
[7] https://www.healthline.com/health/heart-disease/reversing-atherosclerosis#treatment-and-reversal
[8] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30593389/
