[COLOR="Purple"]Hi - I am overweight (15 stone) and have high blood pressure. Since this summer I have developed oedema, i.e. swelling of ankles (now subsided a fair bit) but lower legs still look quite swollen. Long socks are hard to pull up and my boots are very tight now.
GP knows about this and seemed to think it's not really a problem - that I could go on water tablets.
There must be an alternative cure/treatment for this. I have tried dry skin brushing (upwards from the feet) - this temporarily helps. Are there other methods I can try? Is it related to salt or sluggish lymph glands? I don't exercise much now (used to cycle but can't since an accident that unnerved me). I know about keeping feet up, which I do when at the laptop.
Of course the obvious thing would be to lose weight...would this help? This is tricky since I am a full time carer and my perk is crisps and chocolate. To have to forego these would make me miserable.
Any suggestions to help alleviate this condition?
You have kind of answered your own question but contradicted yourself at the same time. You know you are eating rubbish (crisps & choccy) and that this will be a contributor to your problem. It may be a good idea to have a chat with a Nutritionist (Caroline will probably be along any minute!) who could suggest some options that would replace your yearnings for both these items and any other junk. You may find that changing your eating habits will lower your blood pressure, thereby relieving the lower leg oedema and negating the need to take diuretics.
In the meantime, dry skin brushing will help to stimulate the lymphatics - try to incorporate your tummy too, not just your legs. Any chance you could see an MLD therapist, who could give you some instruction on self lymphatic drainage, and give you advice about compression garments (which sounds dreadful, but can be a brilliant alternative to diuretics)? With Mods permission, you can find therapists here - [url]Home - MLD UK[/url]
On a different note, and possibly worth investigating & thinking about your circumstances - for several months, both my husband and I have been following the Feasting/Fasting regime (Mon & Fri - 500 calories (600 for him!) - other days, whatever we normally eat (including chocolate if we want!). He's lost 2 stone and his blood pressure is within normal range, so his meds have been reduced and he is off diuretics and statins. I've lost 1.5 stone so far (been 16 stone for years) and hot flushes are down to just one a day and I have bags and bags of energy and the arthritis in my right knee no longer keeps me awake at night.
Keeping your feet up is OK, but make sure the back of your knees are not over-flexed - make sure you have a pillow or something behind your knees, rather than a gap between the sofa and your feet on stool.
[COLOR="Purple"]Hi - I am overweight (15 stone) and have high blood pressure. Since this summer I have developed oedema, i.e. swelling of ankles (now subsided a fair bit) but lower legs still look quite swollen. Long socks are hard to pull up and my boots are very tight now.
GP knows about this and seemed to think it's not really a problem - that I could go on water tablets.
There must be an alternative cure/treatment for this. I have tried dry skin brushing (upwards from the feet) - this temporarily helps. Are there other methods I can try? Is it related to salt or sluggish lymph glands? I don't exercise much now (used to cycle but can't since an accident that unnerved me). I know about keeping feet up, which I do when at the laptop.
Of course the obvious thing would be to lose weight...would this help? This is tricky since I am a full time carer and my perk is crisps and chocolate. To have to forego these would make me miserable.
Any suggestions to help alleviate this condition?
The leg oedema and high blood pressure are probably linked and one of the best ways to reduce blood pressure is exercise. I run a weight loss and health support group on FB , and one of the things I suggest is a thing called an ad break work out. During one ad break instead of sitting there get up and walk round the room - or walk on the spot. Gradually increase the number of ad breaks and/or the intensity of what you do and you could end up jogging or even doing star jumps several times a day
Even if all you do is walk on the spot for 5 minutes - its 5 minutes more than you were doing.
Actually lack of exercise is probably your main problem and would be the best thing to tackle.
Losing weight wouldn't hurt either - but I am NOT going to suggest you find other perks (although the salt content of crisps won't be doing anything to help your blood pressure or oedema) Instead I am going to ask you if the short term gain of the perks is worth the long term angst of your health issues. Ultimately it is YOUR choice - and no-one can mike it for you
Good luck
You have kind of answered your own question but contradicted yourself at the same time. You know you are eating rubbish (crisps & choccy) and that this will be a contributor to your problem. It may be a good idea to have a chat with a Nutritionist (Caroline will probably be along any minute!) who could suggest some options that would replace your yearnings for both these items and any other junk. You may find that changing your eating habits will lower your blood pressure, thereby relieving the lower leg oedema and negating the need to take diuretics.
In the meantime, dry skin brushing will help to stimulate the lymphatics - try to incorporate your tummy too, not just your legs. Any chance you could see an MLD therapist, who could give you some instruction on self lymphatic drainage, and give you advice about compression garments (which sounds dreadful, but can be a brilliant alternative to diuretics)? With Mods permission, you can find therapists here - [url]Home - MLD UK[/url]
On a different note, and possibly worth investigating & thinking about your circumstances - for several months, both my husband and I have been following the Feasting/Fasting regime (Mon & Fri - 500 calories (600 for him!) - other days, whatever we normally eat (including chocolate if we want!). He's lost 2 stone and his blood pressure is within normal range, so his meds have been reduced and he is off diuretics and statins. I've lost 1.5 stone so far (been 16 stone for years) and hot flushes are down to just one a day and I have bags and bags of energy and the arthritis in my right knee no longer keeps me awake at night.
Keeping your feet up is OK, but make sure the back of your knees are not over-flexed - make sure you have a pillow or something behind your knees, rather than a gap between the sofa and your feet on stool.
[COLOR="Purple"]Thanks for your helpful reply. Luckily, I have a local MLD clinic - £50 an hour though .... would not be able to do this as an on-going therapy! You mention that they would instruct me in self lymphatic drainage. I hope this is true but am sceptical since this would affect their profits! Of course I will ask about this.
I do like to detox (very ocassionally though) since I am familiar with its many beneficial effects. Don't think I could do the feast/fast regime - am guessing this would play havoc with the metabolism. Since I'm a carer, I can't allow myself to be less than functioning - I can get away with doing a one day detox without feeling out of sorts (have discovered that if I just take lemon juice and water WITH fairly frequent 500mg Vit C this keeps me on top of things). Without the Vit C gets into sluggishness - even heavy head - am not sure it should be like this though to be fully effective.
The leg oedema and high blood pressure are probably linked and one of the best ways to reduce blood pressure is exercise. I run a weight loss and health support group on FB , and one of the things I suggest is a thing called an ad break work out. During one ad break instead of sitting there get up and walk round the room - or walk on the spot. Gradually increase the number of ad breaks and/or the intensity of what you do and you could end up jogging or even doing star jumps several times a day
Even if all you do is walk on the spot for 5 minutes - its 5 minutes more than you were doing.
Actually lack of exercise is probably your main problem and would be the best thing to tackle.
Losing weight wouldn't hurt either - but I am NOT going to suggest you find other perks (although the salt content of crisps won't be doing anything to help your blood pressure or oedema) Instead I am going to ask you if the short term gain of the perks is worth the long term angst of your health issues. Ultimately it is YOUR choice - and no-one can mike it for you
Good luck
[COLOR="Purple"]Thanks for your advice and reply. The walking on the spot would be easy to incorporate and I will aim to do this. I can see that this would indeed be beneficial. I do actually do this already as part of my stretching regime but not for 5 mins. I do it till I run out of breath (have a genetic lung condition) but will try and do it more times a day.
I don't eat salted crisps - always unsalted (by choice actually!) Also I don't like much salt in my food, although we eat ready meals fairly often (which I know are quite high in salt). I always offset this with having steamed veg (no salt) but the GP says that this doesn't balance the salt out. The oedema doesn't cause me angst - merely being uncomfortable with tight socks/boots.
Being obese is a significant contributory factor of having high blood pressure but the other key factor is stress. (I have a constant stress/candida rash under my skin folds. THIS is what causes me angst. I use aloe vera gel for the flare ups with tea tree oil. I know what I should be eating to avoid candida - just cannot realistically adhere to it currently). I try and keep calm but it's uphill work since I am in a grim situation (my mum being 92 and not emotionally stable). Food is my comfort. I don't eat junk (for the most part) - it's nearly all fresh food...but, I guess, too much/too often.
Sorry, this has got more convoluted and revealing than intended. I know this situation will change, i.e. when my mum is no longer here. Perhaps then I will be able to adhere to strict diets if need be but I feel sure I will naturally lose weight with the grief process. God, this is a pretty bleak post....you know, I used to do stand up comedy....I used to have a life! :rolleyes:
I have to say that I was totally 'agin' the idea of the Feast/Fast thing - it was my GP who suggested it, as he, along with most of the practitioners at the health centre, were trialling it before recommending to patients. I had the same thoughts as you - I'll never function on 500 calories! But, I do, and it's not proved a problem - not felt drained or tired at all - in fact, quite the opposite. On Mondays I have a boiled egg for brekky, a grapefruit mid-morning, a large green salad with a tablespoon of oil/lemon at lunch time, a couple of satumas mid afternoon, and then either a small chicken breast or tinned tuna over more salad in the evening. On Fridays (which are quite a heavy day with therapies) I'll have porridge for brekky, 2 ryvita with flora, marmite and a couple of thinly cut tomatoes on top for lunch, satsumas or orange or grapefruit mid afternoon and a baked salmon filet with stir fried veg for supper.
Tashanie is a wise woman - doing some basic exercise is a brilliant idea. I have a dog, so walking is compulsory. I also do Pilates and try to swim twice a week. Not so easy when you are a carer - however, I have clients with carers, and some of them exercise 'creatively'!!! One of them does a step routine, on the bottom step of the hall stairs - she can see her son (profoundly disabled) in his chair in the sitting room - sticks her iPod on, and does 10 minutes of stepping - just using the bottom step! She has found it to be a good stress-buster.
As for the MLD clinic - if they are listed on the MLDUK website, then they should be quite capable of teaching self-lymphatic drainage. I aim to have all my clients to masters (or mistresses) of their own condition 'management' as soon as I can. Most of them insist on coming back at least 4 times a year to be reminded of what they should be doing - I reckon they just come for the lie down and a good laugh!!!
[COLOR="Purple"]I have made a couple of discoveries re. self treatment of oedema.
I found a youtube demo (by a qualified practitioner) showing how to do lymphatic drainage massage on self. However, this was very convoluted (many stages).
Luckily, I found a much easier method via a demo on the acupressure point for oedema. I found this useful (i.e. applying circular pressure on this tender point brought relief within seconds so I guess it must be working)! I have used acupressure successfully many times for various ailments.
Here it is, for others who suffer from leg oedema:
[url]Acupressure Treatments : Acupressure for Edema - YouTube[/url]
Donna Eden, has written several books on energy medicine - on youtube she wonderfully demonstrates the lymphatic flush, which she calls 'the spinal flush' in her book.
[url]Energy Healing One - 10 - Lymphatic Flush - YouTube[/url]
In Donna Eden's book she writes "The Lympathic system has been called the body's other circulatory system. While Blood is pumped by the heart, movement and massage pump the lymph. Lymphocytes are specialized white blood cells produced by the lymph nodes, found in your neck, armpits, abdomen and groin. The lymph system also carries proteins, hormones and fats to the cells and eliminates dead tissue and other waste products. There are twice as many lymph vessels as blood vessels in your body." ENERGY MEDICINE
A good aromatherapist would be able to massage with specific oils to disperse the water retention. I treat my friend and she has exactly the same problem. Good luck x