What is claudication?
Claudication is a vascular disease: the arteries in the leg are narrowed.
Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood. While walking have the leg muscles need extra oxygen. The arteries bring the oxygen rich blood to your leg.
When you get the leg muscles is going to run a little, too little oxygen through the narrow arteries. So you get pain in your leg. Please come if you think about it, the muscles to rest. The blood stream than oxygen replenishment. The pain disappears.
Because people often just for a shop window until the pain is less, we call it ' shop window ' legs.
The medical name for display window legs is intermittent claudication.
What causes a narrowing of the arteries?
With the years the arteries at all what more closely. This is due to arteriosclerosis. In the wall of the arteries accumulate fats, lime and inflammatory cells on. the wall of the arteries that in young people still elastic, is becoming stiffer and thicker and calcify. The arteries are thus ever more closely.
What are the symptoms in claudication?
At claudication you get while walking pain, cramping or a deaf or tired feeling in your leg. The complaints may in the foot, the calf, thigh or buttock may occur. Sometimes you need a cold feeling in your feet.
If you stopped the complaints disappear. You can walk again, then start the complaints after the same distance running again.
Run faster or go up a slope, is extra strenuous. You will then be given faster complaints.
In a cold environment you also get earlier complaints. That's because when cold the blood vessels constrict.
With claudication do you have a chance for other cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks or stroke.
Risk of narrowing of the arteries
Risk factors that give on narrowing of the blood vessels are:
*smoking
*high blood pressure
*high cholesterol
*diabetes mellitus
*Rheumatoid arthritis
*stress
*overweight
*lack of exercise
What can I do myself at claudication?
You can do a lot to reduce the complaints to showcase and aggravation of the legs to prevent vascular disease.
The most important measure at narrowing of the leg vein is provide a better blood circulation in the leg. That means:
*no smoking
*more hiking
*gait training with a specialized physical therapist
*the cholesterol (by healthy diet and medications)
How is a narrowing of the leg vein measured?
The GP may examine whether the blood vessels are constricted in your legs. He does this by comparing the blood pressure to your arms with blood pressure to your ankles.
Please note:
*Wear for this research clothing that loosely around your arms and legs is.
*From 2 hours for the examination you may not smoke.
Measuring the blood pressure at your ankle is similar to measuring the blood pressure to your arm. You will get a cuff above your ankle. The cuff is pumped up. While the cuff slowly deflates, the doctor listens to the blood flow in the arteries of your ankle. An amplifier makes sure you can hear the blood flow. We call such an amplifier a Doppler device.
The relationship between blood pressure and armbloeddruk only we call the ankle-brachial index. Normally the blood pressure in your arm roughly equal to the blood pressure in your ankle. At a blood vessel constriction in the blood pressure in your ankle bone is lower than in your arm.
Some surgeons do this research is not in their own practice. Your GP refers you to a GP or a hospital laboratory.
Advice on narrowing of the leg vein: quit smoking
For some it is advice to stop enough. They never touch a cigarette to. Most smokers find it very difficult to stop. Make sure you prepare good stopping.
*Go to the doctor if you are considering stopping. The doctor will discuss with you what the difficulties can be and how you can best go there. The GP may you also give advice on AIDS in smoking cessation.
*With tools to be successful, it is often better to stop. For example with resources that supplement the shortage of nicotine, such as nicotine-gum or patches. This allows you to first unlearn the habit of smoking while you still ingest nicotine. Then you adjust the amount of nicotine Dec.
*Cigarette smoke also contains other addictive substances except nicotine. This provides users with nicotine gum or patches often still need to smoking. You must really want to stop to persevere and it really to sustain.
*People who have previously stopped and know that they continue to smoke huge desire, may consider to use the non-need drugs and to reduce withdrawal symptoms. The best known are nortriptyline, bupropion and varenicline.
Advice on window display legs: gait training with a physical therapist
A specialized training course under the guidance of a physical therapist can help showcase additional good legs.
It is important that you at least 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes train. Keep that at least a half year vol. then you notice the difference.
After that, it is important to continue to train. Speak with your physical therapist when you again for control comes to discuss how it goes.
Advice on narrowing of the leg vein: hiking
You can improve the blood flow to your legs regularly hiking and walking exercises to do.
That will make the blood flow through the smaller vessels increases. Gradual onset there ' shortcuts ' that lead to the narrowed blood vessels. In this way, your legs get better with blood. The muscles get more oxygen and soon you will have less complaints. Over time you can walk a greater distance before the complaints occur.
The walking exercises do you do so:
*Walking just as long until you get complaints, and then walk 10 steps by. Don't be afraid, it can't hurt.
Rest until the symptoms have disappeared.
*Repeat this exercise again several times, for 15 to 30 minutes.
*It is important that you do this walking exercises 3 times a week, preferably every day. You like this at least 6 months full.
After a few weeks to months, you will notice that you always can walk a bit further. Even if it is not more manage to even what to hiking, you must continue to walk daily. This prevents the complaints get worse. Give walking a firm place in your life.
Advice on narrowing of the leg vein: eat healthy and watch fat
Eat little saturated fat. Saturated fat raises cholesterol levels in your blood. Saturated fat is especially in cream, butter, whole milk products, cheese, fatty meats, full-fat, regular margarine, cake, cookies and snacks.
*Eat mainly vegetables, fruit, potatoes and whole grain products.
*Choose low-fat milk products, low-fat cheese, lean meat, chicken or fish.
*Oily fish, diet margarine and vegetable oils contain unsaturated fats that reduce cholesterol.
*Replace so products with saturated fat by products rich in unsaturated fat. Often this will be indicated on the packaging.
Feet care and check with narrowing of the leg vein
Check your feet regularly. At bad healing wounds, pressure-or calluses to the family doctor. If necessary, he/she sends you to the pedicure for proper foot care. Or to a Podiatrist for properly fitting shoes.
Medications at narrowing of the leg vein
There are no medications to treat narrowing of the leg vein or cure.
Well there are medications that increase the risk of (further) reduce narrowing or closure of the arteries. The risk of other cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks or stroke, is smaller. Examples include certain medications for high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
You will be given blood thinners (so-called clot inhibitors, such as acetylsalicylic acid or Ascal) to reduce the risk of blood clots in the blood vessels to shrink.
Some medications for other conditions can make the symptoms worse precisely because they are the blood vessels to constrict. Examples include beta blockers and ergotaminen. These are drugs against high blood pressure and migraines.
When contact with claudication?
Call your health care provider:
*If your symptoms despite running training yet get worse
*If you get pain in your leg at night
As a matter of urgency, call your health care provider if:
*sudden intense pain in your leg
*the leg is pale and cold and deaf to the touch
*your leg suddenly loses power.
These are manifestations of a sudden closure of a leg vein. You must then quickly to the hospital.