Peripheral Artery Disease – An Overview
Peripheral artery disease(PAD) is a disease of arteries located outside your brain and heart. Due to the deposition of fat in plaque on the arteries walls, they become narrower and stiffer than normal, restricting the supply of blood leading to PAD.
It mostly affects your legs and feet and can restrict the blood supply to your kidney, arms and stomach. In a study, it has been found that around 8.5 million Americans are suffering from peripheral artery disease. Unfortunately, most people misunderstand PAD symptoms with normal ageing signs like arthritis which makes the early diagnosis of PAD quite difficult.
Peripheral artery disease can lead to some serious health complications like heart attack and stroke if left untreated.
Symptoms Of Peripheral Artery Disease
It has been found that around 50% of people with the condition don’t even know that they are suffering from PAD. Because in most cases, peripheral artery disease doesn’t show any symptoms. However, some of the possible symptoms of PAD are:
Loss Of Hair Of Feet And Legs
Loss of hair of feet and legs is one of the most common and easily identifiable symptoms of PAD which is overlooked most of the time. When you are suffering from peripheral arterial disease your arteries carrying blood get clogged due to the deposition of plaques on the wall of the arteries. This, in turn, reduces the blood supply to your leg and feet. For hair growth, a consistent blood supply is required. Hindrance in blood flow due to PAD results in hair loss of feet and legs.
Weakness In Legs
PAD leads to mild to severe pain in the legs, especially during physical activities like walking or climbing the stairs. This is because these activities need a huge supply of blood to the legs. PAD makes these physical activities quite difficult due to clogged arteries that restrict blood flow in the legs. It often leads to pain, weakness, or numbness in the calves, thighs, or hips, which can vanish once you rest. These are the most common symptoms reported by PAD patients. Even lifting your leg from the ground or lying down can raise your pain in some severe cases.
Change In Leg’s Appearance
Just before the starting of pain in the legs, due to restricted blood supply to the legs, other easily diagnosable changes can be seen in your legs like:
Thinning of hair of your legs
The skin of the legs starts appearing shiny or pale or bluish
Slowed growth of toenails or brittle toenails
Coldness in the lower leg
Sores Or Ulcers On The Feet And Leg That May Take Time To Heal Or Not Heal
For the healing of the wounds, a healthy and proper blood flow is required. So most of the time doctors carefully diagnose PAD patients for any kind of injury as an ignored and untreated wound may turn into a severe infection. Painful, black or grey coloured dry sores are the noticeable sign of peripheral artery disease.
Erection Issues In Men
Due to plaque deposition, blocked arteries may also restrict the blood supply to the penis, which then causes difficulty in achieving an erection. However, this problem can be solved with pills like cenforce 100. In order to get back their erections, most men rely on cenforce 100 oral pills. However, Cenforce 100 contains sildenafil citrate, which is a PDE5 inhibitor that works by relaxing the penile muscles, thereby allowing more blood to reach the penis thus causing an erection.
Apart from the above symptoms, some anti-allergic and cold medicines can worsen your PAD symptoms. These pills work by constricting the blood vessels so that less fluid should enter the sinus, throat and nose. Unfortunately, this can lead to the further narrowing of the arteries that are already constricted due to the fat deposition, which can further worsen the symptoms.
Factors Leading To Peripheral Artery Disease
The most common cause behind PAD is atherosclerosis which is characterised by the hardening and narrowing of the arteries due to the deposition of fat on the artery walls. Other rare causes of PAD are:
Blood clots in the arteries
Limb injury
Abnormal ligaments and muscles
Apart from the above causes, the following risk factors make you more prone to peripheral artery disease:
Diabetes
Unhealthy diet
Lack of exercise
Smoking
Family history of the disease
Increased age
Excessive C-reactive protein or homocysteine
Belonging to African American ancestry
Complications Of Peripheral Artery Disease
An untreated peripheral artery disease may lead to complications like heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack. Apart from these complications, erection issues in men is one of the common side effects of PAD. However, it can be overcome with cenforce 100 medicine under doctor’s guidelines.
Cenforce 100 results in firm and long-lasting erections. Cenforce 100 does this by increasing the blood flow to the penis. However, cenforce 100 leads to some side effects and drug interactions. So before taking cenforce 100, first consult your doctor.
Treatment Of Peripheral Artery Disease
Following lifestyle changes and a few medications will help in reducing the symptoms of peripheral artery disease:
Regular Exercise
Regular physical activity is one of the effective ways to treat PAD. Aerobic exercises like swimming, rowing and cycling, brisk walk, leg exercises, and treadmill exercise 30 to 40 minutes, three times a day for 4 to 5 weeks, will help overcome the symptoms of peripheral artery disease.
Dietary Changes
PAD is the result of elevated cholesterol levels. A diet rich in processed food items, trans and unhealthy fats will lead to increased cholesterol, leading to PAD. Lowering the consumption of fatty foods, including fruits, veggies, whole grains, and cereals, will help lower cholesterol levels, thus preventing PAD.
Medications
To lower down your cholesterol levels, the doctor may prescribe your antihypertensive drugs and statins.