How to differentiate lower limb edema?

Symptoms of lower limb edema are quite common in our daily life. There are many reasons for this. In addition to the bad habit of standing for too long, most of them are caused by diseases. For example, patients with heart disease, liver disease, or kidney disease often experience lower limb edema. In addition, hyperthyroidism may also induce this edema.

Lower limb edema is common in clinical practice, and is mainly seen in the following types of disease-induced edema.

① Cardiac edema: patients with various heart diseases, when heart function is not sufficient, systemic circulation is impaired, which reduces the amount of blood returning to the heart through the veins of the lower limbs, causing edema;

② Hepatic edema. After various hepatitis develops into cirrhosis, the liver synthesizes less albumin, causing hypoproteinemia and lower plasma osmotic pressure, which can cause limb edema.

③ Renal edema, acute or chronic, patients with nephritis or nephrotic syndrome, reduced glomerular filtration function, resulting in water and sodium retention in the body, coupled with a large amount of proteinuria, resulting in hypoproteinemia, thus causing edema;

④ Hypothyroidism edema. When the thyroid function is low, the patient's dermis will have mucopolysaccharide deposition, and a large amount of hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate and water will accumulate between cells, which can cause edema of the lower limbs.

⑤ Edema caused by deep vein lesions in the lower limbs. When deep venous phlebitis in the lower limbs or venous valve insufficiency in the lower limbs occurs, the patient may experience edema in the lower limbs due to obstruction of venous return.

Physiological edema;

Symptom 1: Some middle-aged women, after getting up in the morning, suddenly find that they have gained weight, their eyes and face are slightly swollen, and the skin of their lower limbs has pitting edema or tightness. It will gradually subside as the day goes by.

Symptom 2: Some people who are accustomed to eating heavy food often experience lower limb edema.

Symptom three: When standing, walking, squatting or sitting for a long time, you will find that your lower limbs or feet are "tight". Women who go shopping are most aware of this. If you take a short rest or change your body position for a while, the swelling will decrease and disappear on its own.

Symptom 4: Some healthy women experience mild swelling of the eyes, backs of hands, feet, and even lower legs a week or half a month before menstruation, or accompanied by breast tenderness, heaviness in the pelvic area, as well as symptoms of neurosis such as irritability, anger, insomnia, fatigue, and headache.

Symptom 5: After taking certain medicines, swelling of the forehead, hands and feet will occur, and the swelling will gradually subside after stopping the medicine.

Treatment and prevention of lower limb edema

Patients with edema should be treated according to the cause. For lower limb edema caused by heart, liver and kidney diseases, diuretics can be given to relieve symptoms. People with hypothyroidism can take thyroxine tablets for treatment. Surgery can be used for deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities. To prevent deep vein thrombosis, anticoagulants should be given. Warfarin is the most effective drug, but it must be used under the guidance of a doctor. Taking 150 mg of aspirin daily has a certain preventive effect.

For physiological edema, the following measures can be taken to prevent and treat it.

1. Maintain an optimistic mood and adhere to proper exercise for a long time, such as walking, jogging, and exercising with fitness equipment, to enhance physical fitness and improve adaptability.

2. When choosing food, the principle should be to choose food that is rich in protein, vitamins and inorganic salts, low in fat, low in cholesterol, less dregs and less salt. You can eat more foods such as celery, radish, spinach, tomatoes, soybeans, mushrooms, garlic, fruits and soy products.

3. Avoid sitting or standing for long periods of time, move your lower limbs frequently, and pay attention to lifting your legs frequently.

4. Ensure good sleep and regular living.