Love Your Legs: 8 Tips to Help Leg Pain
Author: StrideCare Internal Team
Summertime is your chance to take a break from work, school schedules, and anything else that’s been keeping you inside. It’s time to bring out the summer dresses, bathing suits, and shorts for outdoor enjoyment. After hibernating through the Texas winter and spring severe weather storms, take advantage of the sunshine and show off some skin. Sadly, the combination of embarrassing varicose veins and constant leg pain may have some people feeling uncomfortable about showing their legs. This is especially true during the summer when those symptoms appear to be at their worst. As a result, patients with leg pain insist on hiding their legs by wearing long pants all day long—regardless of how hot it is outside.
At StrideCare, we want everyone to love their legs—especially during the summer. But we’re not blind to the fact that an average of one in every three adults over the age of 45 develops some form of vein disease. And when that includes leg pain, it’s about all they can think about. The good news is that there is hope for you and your summer plans. You can love your legs—provided that you seek treatment for a possible vein issue.
Leg Pain Can Be Worse During the Summer
The veins in your body are responsible for providing your vital organs with the blood they need to work efficiently and healthily. But they tend to age as we do and can no longer do their job as efficiently as they once did. As a result, they become narrow and malfunction, causing blood to flow backward in the wrong direction. This causes veins to bulge, stretch, and enlarge. At first, there may not be any symptoms other than unsightly spider veins and varicose veins. If left unchecked, uncomfortable leg pain can set in, including:
- Tired, heavy legs
- Throbbing or stabbing pain
- Swelling and achiness
- Numbness and tingling
- Varicose veins
- Itching, prickling, pulling sensations
- Burning sensations
- Open sores and ulcers
- Leg cramping
These leg pain symptoms are worse during the summer thanks to vasodilation, a normal bodily process where the muscular walls of our blood vessels relax and widen, causing increased blood flow toward the skin to cool the body down. Environmental situations such as higher temperatures, exercise, and inflammation all contribute to increased vasodilation. You’d think that more blood circulation is actually a good thing. And it is. But for people with vein disease symptoms, including leg pain, vasodilation can make their pain worse.
This is because the body is already struggling to push blood from the legs back up to the heart. With more blood accumulating and beginning to pool, pain ensues. Your legs are uncomfortable when you move, and they even cause problems while you are at rest. You certainly can’t do all the things you used to love doing, and your life becomes very sedentary. All you want is relief, and believe it or not, the answer doesn’t have to be surgery or a hospital visit.
8 Tips to Help Your Leg Pain
Your doctor will likely ask you to try conservative approaches to improve circulation, the symptoms of painful legs, and slow the development of new diseased veins.
Just a few tips to help with leg pain include:
- Start with improving your diet — While it is important to avoid bad foods, it is also imperative that you replace those foods with ones to help you maintain a healthy Body Mass Index, boost your energy so that you remain active, lose weight, and promote overall blood circulation. This includes fruits and vegetables, foods high in Vitamin C and E, fish and fish oil, fiber-rich foods, and whole grains.
- Support your legs with compression socks — There’s an old saying that prevention is worth a pound of cure, and a perfect example is compression socks and stockings. Compression socks support your legs, reduce swelling, and limit the symptoms of leg pain by applying gentle pressure. The best time to wear compression socks is during long work shifts, while exercising, and when you find yourself sitting or standing for too long.
- Elevate your legs — Elevating your legs for 30 minutes at least four times a day decompresses lower extremity veins, allowing for blood that has pooled to drain away. As a result, tension that has been allowed to build up in your legs, hips, and feet dissipates, and leg pain symptoms improve.
- Avoid tight clothing — You’ve likely spent the last few months wearing tight clothing such as jeans and pants that cause interrupt blood flow around the waist, upper thighs, and legs. Now that it’s summer, ditching these clothing items for dresses, loose shorts, and even bathing suits can help limit swelling and leg pain.
- Exercise — Exercising regularly helps improve blood flow throughout the body, builds strong muscles and joints, and simply promotes a healthier lifestyle. For adults, the American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and to increase the amount and intensity gradually.
- Wear comfortable and supportive shoes — Certain shoes may look good but are either too tight or not very comfortable, which can potentially restrict blood flow and cause other complications. This is especially true if you are in a retail or another service industry that requires you to be on your feet all the time.
- Quit smoking — Smoking, in general, is not good for you and is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes its direct impact on the formation of varicose veins and other venous diseases and complications.
- When possible, keep cool — This tip is easier said than done during the summer. But when possible, keep your legs and feet cool by taking a swim in cool water. This lowers your body temperature and helps you avoid direct sunlight on the areas that are causing you the most pain.
Limit Leg Pain and Enjoy Your Summer with StrideCare
Sadly, so many people think that there is no cure for their leg pain, and that they’ll have to put their summer plans on hold for another year. But the reality is that leg pain is not something you have to live with for the rest of your life. When caught early, vein disease and the painful symptoms it causes are very much treatable.
StrideCare has long been a leader in performing leading-edge procedures to treat vein disease and eliminate leg pain symptoms ranging from tired and heavy feelings to burning sensations and even open sores. These symptoms can be brought on by everything from varicose veins to chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), restless leg syndrome, chronic pelvic pain, pelvic congestion syndrome, May-Thurner Syndrome, and more. We are here to help, all the while providing compassionate patient care.
StrideCare physicians are board-certified diagnostic radiologists with additional fellowship training in vascular and interventional radiology. If your legs need treatment—or you have questions on how to avoid the onset of venous disease—the experts at StrideCare will recommend an individualized plan to help you get the best results.
Prior to starting any new treatment or questions regarding a medical condition, always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider. This information is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
StrideCare serves the South Texas area including Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Round Rock, Bastrop, Brushy Creek, Cedar Park, Converse, Georgetown, Hutto, Kyle, Leander, Marble Falls, New Braunfels, Pasadena, Pearland, Pflugerville, San Marcos, Schertz, Houston, Sugar Land, Katy, Webster, Bay City, Clear Lake, Lake Jackson, The Woodlands, Universal City, Spring, Kingwood, Stafford, Conroe, Texas City, Cypress, League City, Bellaire, and more.
