Tips for treating heavy legs
When you get home after a long day, you might feel like your legs are starting to swell and feel heavier than usual; you might even feel an ache in the backs of your legs, running from your ankles up to your hips…
But what is really happening? Are we just physically tired, or is there something more to it? If you experience these symptoms every day and they are increasing, you probably have what is known colloquially as “heavy legs”.
Heavy legs syndrome, however, is a vascular illness, affecting one in four adults in Spain and one in two aged over 50. It is also five times more prevalent in women.
Symptoms
The most common symptoms are those already mentioned: heavy, aching legs. However, it is also common for these to be accompanied by cramps and a certain sensation of numbness, tingling and itching (paresthesia).
In terms of visual symptoms, it is often concurrent with varicose veins, which are simply the dilation of veins that lose their elasticity and are unable to return to their usual state, making them larger in diameter and, consequently, visible.
These symptoms tend to increase as we age, particularly for women. They also tend to be stronger when we experience spikes in hormonal levels, such as during menstruation, oestrogen replacement treatment and pregnancy, when there are also imbalances in the correct excretion of fluids.
So, what are varicose veins?
Does having varicose veins imply having heavy legs? It is very possible for these symptoms to be linked to an illness called chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), which appears in patients with moderate–severe varicose conditions.
Varicose veins form because the veins transporting (deoxygenated) blood that has been used by tissues are not sheathed in their own muscle (as is the case with arteries), so they use valves to push blood towards the heart. When this pumping system isn’t working properly, blood can pool and part of the liquid being transported leaks out of the veins. Subsequently, this high pressure causes the veins to lose elasticity, showing symptoms of oedema (swelling), heaviness and aching.
Recommendations
Heavy legs syndrome can be provoked by unavoidable factors such as genetic predisposition, previous circulatory illnesses or hormonal levels. However, it is also influenced by other avoidable factors:
- Sedentary lifestyles: we should do light exercise to stimulate leg mobility.
- Obesity: the more we weigh, the less muscle and the greater difficulty moving.
- Tight clothing: this causes induced vasoconstriction and non-physiological blood pooling in the veins.
There are also numerous clinical practice guides with very helpful recommendations for dealing with the illness day by day.
Treatment
There are several treatments for heavy legs syndrome:
- We recommend starting from a topical perspective, using gel-type emulsions with calming, relaxing active ingredients and that have a venotonic effect, producing vasoconstriction, toning veins and therefore diminishing symptoms.
- Other therapies are available, including compression therapy (the application of external pressure on the legs), phytotherapy (diet) and oral treatments It is even possible to receive vascular surgery in the most extreme cases, especially when the previous methods prove insufficient or ineffective.
