Table of contents
4 Common Causes of Puffiness
Products in the fight against edema
How an osteopath can help
Edema and coccyx injury
Causes of puffiness
Let us analyze the most common pathologies in which there is stagnation of fluid in the body. For example, when there is varicose eyelids, swelling is inevitable. Moreover, dehydration can lead to the formation of blood clots. If you have varicose veins, you need to wear compression stockings and drink more water. A dangerous stereotype to think that with swelling you need to drink less. Dehydration, on the contrary, is unacceptable!
Often, edema indicates a malfunction in the kidneys. After all, it is this paired organ that is responsible, among other things, for the removal of fluid from the body. If there is a pathology, the face may swell. Kidney problems are indicated along the way by characteristic pain in the lower back, a change in the color of urine.
Edema is often encountered by hypertensive patients – people with high blood pressure who take appropriate medications. The latter are also called calcium channel blockers, one of the complications that they give is swelling of the legs. This happens for the following reason: the drugs dilate the blood vessels, they become more permeable and thus the penetrating fluid accumulates in the lower extremities. In these cases, in agreement with the doctor, an alternative group of drugs to reduce pressure is selected. If the abolition of pills is not possible, it is necessary to constantly wear compression stockings and to some extent put up with swelling of the legs (normalization of pressure in this case is a priority).
In pregnant women, swelling for a long time can be a sign of preeclampsia – a complication of pregnancy, accompanied by a disorder in the functions of internal organs. Therefore, expectant mothers regularly give urine for protein analysis and monitor pressure.
With heart failure, edema is also possible. Such patients need to limit salt intake so that sodium does not “pull” water into the surrounding tissues.
Products in the fight against edema
Let us emphasize that there must be a balance in the body of the intake and removal of fluid from the body. How to check if you have swelling? In some cases, they are visible to the naked eye (when traces of gum from socks remain on the ankles, in the morning there are bags under the eyes on the face), but swelling can also be hidden. To identify them, you need to press your finger on the lower leg – if a hole remains for a few seconds, it may be swelling. You can also analyze diuresis, when the amount of fluid released is less than what was drunk – this is also a symptom of fluid retention.
In some cases, diet will help. It is worth reducing the amount of fast carbohydrates (in the morning after a plentiful feast, you can observe a “swollen”, enlarged waist, and someone has a swollen face), salt, spices and consume the protein rate necessary for your weight. There are products that are traditionally considered good helpers in the fight against edema. For example, green tea, chard (a type of beet), parsley. The latter helps to retain potassium in the body. Plus massage, contrast shower and compression stockings. But it is worthwhile to understand that nutritional correction will help if we are not talking about serious diseases, the above pathologies.
Our expert, an osteopathic doctor, has another explanation for why fluid stagnates in the body.
How an osteopath can help
“In simple terms, edema is a fluid that accumulates in any part of the body. And if your face is swollen in the morning, you can, of course, blame salty food or alcohol drunk with friends in the evening at the bar, but it’s worth thinking about why the liquid is not excreted? Why don’t blood and lymph drain from the face?
From the veins under the eyes, blood flows through the cranial cavity (NOT through the veins of the face). This is important to know in order to understand where to look for an obstacle. After all, it is it that interferes with the normal outflow of blood and is the true cause of the appearance of edema under the eyes, this is local swelling.
Renal swelling, for example, extends to the entire face. And if there are no indications of kidney pathology in the anamnesis, the reason is clearly not in them.
Where is she? In the skull. More precisely, in the displacement of the bones of the skull, which in turn is caused by a long-standing trauma to the skull. Displaced bones – like a tree that has fallen into a stream – compress the veins and prevent blood from moving normally through the vessels.
We go down below: injuries of the skull, whether birth or acquired, are the cause of the displacement of the cervical vertebrae and the tension of the cervical muscles. This is another reason for the stagnation of blood and lymph in the head. You can check this by the presence of other symptoms: pain in the neck, withers, dizziness, hernia, memory impairment, etc.
All you can do on your own in this case is to perform exercises to relax the muscles of the neck. Otherwise, it is better to contact an osteopath and restore the position of the bones of the skull – to remove the consequences of injuries.
And certainly do not rely on cosmetics. A healthy lifestyle, of course, matters, but if you are an avid healthy lifestyle, don’t drink at night, don’t eat salty, sleep enough, and swelling appears, this is the first sign of fluid stagnation.
Edema and coccyx injury
So, edema is “excess water”, a liquid that stagnates in this case in the legs and causes them to swell. Where does she come from? Let’s get a little acquainted with the blood circulation system in the vascular bed. Exchange processes occur through a network of capillaries. The fluid is retained in the lumen of the capillaries due to the fact that blood proteins “bind” water. The walls of capillaries do not allow fluid to penetrate freely into the extravascular bed.
The system is complex. And it is designed for a certain pressure inside the vessels. But as soon as it rises, the liquid part of the blood begins to penetrate through the capillary wall to the outside. This provokes the formation of edema. And the most common cause of swelling of the lower extremities is an increase in intravascular pressure and “squeezing out” of fluid.
A logical question arises: in what cases does the pressure increase? Most often, the cause is an injury to the coccyx, which caused the organs to prolapse, and they, in turn, squeeze the vessels through which lymph and blood flow from the legs.
Coccyx injury, due to which the sacrum and coccyx are displaced and the pelvic floor muscles are stretched, is the initial cause of compression of the lymphatic and venous vessels and increased pressure in the capillaries of the lower extremities.
And if the patient has inflammation, an allergic reaction, the amount of protein in the blood is reduced – this is a concomitant factor! These reasons are secondary, but they can aggravate the condition.
Thus, if you are concerned about swelling of the legs and this symptom is systemic, take care to return the lowered internal organs to their place by performing special exercises. And be sure to visit an osteopath to remove the consequences of a coccyx injury.
Photo: Pexels.com
Subscribe to Goodshapetips !
