Poor Blood Circulation: Are You a Victim?

Poor circulation is a little known and treacherous disease. Millions of individuals suffer from it worldwide without even being aware of the disease. Millions of others are fighting it every day through medication and life style management. Yet many feel the symptoms growing in their bodies but choose to ignore it completely or take any serious note hence paving the way to a failure in early diagnosis and treatment. Sometimes the awareness comes too late, at the death of the individual! Like the natural jungle predator, poor circulation is the silent killer attacking when you are unaware of the existence of the danger or are poorly guarded against it.

In medical jargon, poor circulation is called Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) or Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) or Peripheral Artery Occlusive Disease (PAOD). Bad circulation is the obstruction of blood circulation (ischemia) due to accumulation of fatty deposits in inner linings of the artery walls. Besides kidney, your limbs (feet, hands, arms, and legs) are exposed to this dangerous disease. Existence of PVD in more critical organs like heart and brain can cause death by stroke or heart attack.

Poor circulation is a grave condition and can not be taken lightly. It can cause heart attack and stroke and can result in loss of an arm, hand, feet, or legs, and can even result in death in extreme case. An early diagnosis and continuous treatment goes a long way in mitigating the risk. Treatment will either be in the form of medication, meditation, life style management, or a combination of all of these methods.

When looking for symptoms, you should note the behavior of limbs (arms, legs, feet, and hands). Claudication (pain, cramping, sleepiness, swelling), falling temperature, and fatigue in limbs are indicative of bad circulation. If you find any or several of these indications, go to your family physician immediately and ask for a thorough examination. Bad circulation can be diagnosed through physical checkup. A more detailed examination will include Doppler ultrasound, X-ray angiography, or CT scan. Let us now talk about some lifestyle management basics to control bad circulation.

Since poor circulation is aggravated by smoking, diabetes mellitus, Dyslipidemia (increase in cholesterol level), and hypertension (blood pressure), you can mitigate or harness the risk by monitoring them closely and consistently. Include physical exercise in your daily routine and switch to a healthy and fat-free diet.

A good assessment of your lifestyle will reveal the reasons and substantiate your symptoms. Primarily it will be lack of exercise - the nature's way to ensure consistent blood circulation. Junk food and food with fat saturation also contributes towards it exposing you to the risk of heart attack, stroke, or even death. So be aware. Be safe.