Are your feet looking ‘puffy?’
By Dr. Sonja Stiller, Center for Advanced Vein Care
Now that shorts and sandals season has finally arrived, take a good look at your feet, ankles and lower legs in the bright sunshine. What do you see? Warning signs of venous disease include obvious ones like purple veins, bulging veins and swelling, but there are also more subtle symptoms, such as spider veins, skin discoloration and puffiness, which can be made worse in the heat of spring and summer.
How do your shoes fit? Shoe sizes typically don’t change over our adult lives, so a newfound snugness may be swelling related to varicose veins. How about your sandals? Is your skin puffy and beginning to bulge through the shoe’s openings?
Puffiness (swelling) is often the result of a weakened venous system that cannot fight gravity well enough to move blood completely up and out of the lower legs. And because our veins carry metabolic waste, these toxins build up in our lower legs, creating inflammation, achiness, fatigue, swelling and even blood clots.
Family history is a strong predictor of venous disease, so it’s especially important to get checked out if one or more of your parents or grandparents had varicose veins. Many of our patients remark, “I don’t want my legs to look like Mom’s (or Dad’s) did!” To avoid that, it’s best to get an early start on treatment.
If you’re experiencing puffiness, or any of the following symptoms, it’s a good idea to get checked out now, especially if you have a family history of varicose veins or blood clots:
- leg pain
- swelling
- fatigue
- itching
- burning
- inflammation
- leg cramps
- restless legs syndrome
Dr. Sonja Stiller is a diplomat of both the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine. She is the founder of the Center for Advanced Vein Care, a Tier 1 provider with Lake Health Hospital System, located at 7200 Mentor Avenue, in Mentor. For an appointment, call 440-710-1140. More info can be found at YourHealthyVeins.com.