Peripheral Arterial Disease; The Silent Killer

This condition is not well known, you maybe never heard about this silent killer called PAD. This illness is characterized by clogged arteries in the legs and other extremities. The reason you should know about this silent killer is because it affects 8 to 10 million Americans, and the bad news is that 75% of them experience no symptoms and they even have a single clue that they have this mortal disease. The most common form of this disease when cholesterol and other fats called plaque, collect in the walls of the arteries.

This process is a silent one and if is left unchecked, can narrow the arteries and reduces the blood flow, and eventually blocked completely. PAD occurs more often in the legs but can affect the stomach, arms, kidneys and the heart. Diagnosing this condition is critical; PAD is one of the strongest risks for a heart disease. People that suffer PAD have six to seven times higher risk of a heart attack or a stroke, and even are in risk of amputation of extremities. PAD develops slowly over the years and symptoms may nit appear until the disease has progressed to a serious stage.

The symptoms of PAD are very confusing because they are frequently attributed to sings of aging or normal fatigue. These symptoms include fatigue, heaviness, excess of tiredness, cramping in the legs during any type of exercise. The confusion is worst than it appears to be because this symptoms come and go so they are not taken seriously. Other symptoms are foot pain, color changes in the skin of the feet, slow healing wounds and erectile dysfunction. Everything can't look worst but there are some things that can be done to prevent this silent killer.

Starting to do exercise early is great preventive measure for this and other conditions. Exercise increase the blood flow by encouraging the body to grow new blood vessels called coronary artery collaterals, and no medication can perform this. Exercise combined with a healthy diet can make someone immune to this disease because the probabilities are reduced significantly. Other preventive measures that help are quitting smoking, blood sugar control and controlling the blood pressure. Also you can take some supplements like L-arginine, coenzyme Q10, omega-3 and vitamins and minerals like niacin, magnesium, vitamin E and vitamin B complex. I strongly suggest that you take a multivitamin daily, this is essential to make sure that you are taking enough of each vitamin and mineral needed for the proper function of the body.