Contributed by: Abshar Faheem
Understanding Poor Blood Circulation
Since the onset of the pandemic, most people are doing work from home. Our lifestyle has transformed and become sedentary for long hours. This can cause plenty of health-related problems in your body including poor blood circulation in your legs and feet. Good circulation is essential for your body to remain healthy and fit. Circulation is the method in which the heart pumps a person’s blood throughout their body. Due to poor blood circulation, the oxygen and nutrients present in the blood might not be reaching your legs and feet.
The main reason for poor blood circulation is to remain sedentary for long hours. Anyone can suffer from poor circulation of blood regardless of age and gender. The main symptoms of poor blood circulation include tingling or numbness, the sensation of pins and needles, cold extremities, stinging, pain, and muscle cramp. People with poor blood circulation may experience critical health conditions including diabetes, hardening of vessels, obesity, clotting of blood, autoimmune diseases, and peripheral arterial disease.
Various factors determine how well the blood circulates throughout the body such as blood pressure, blood health, blood vessel health, and heart health. Good circulation of blood is vital for overall health and prevents us from getting other serious conditions.
5 steps to improve blood circulation in your legs
In order to improve our blood circulation, we have listed some strategies that anyone can follow.
- Take frequent short breaks: If you are working for long hours, you should take frequent short breaks. Include stretches, consuming lots of water, and some exercise in your frequent breaks. It will help you to remain active even after working for long hours.
- Exercise: Include some exercises in your daily routine as this can improve your blood circulation. Exercises such as glute bridges, leg swings, foam rolling, and half kneeling hip flexors can help you to prevent poor blood circulation, especially people doing sedentary jobs. You can repeat this 15 to 20 times for each leg. In addition, you can go for yoga and practice yoga.
- Stop Smoking: Smoking can ruin your healthy blood vessels. It can swell your leg and ankle and most smokers experience blood clotting. If you smoke, your heart will not work in the best conditions leading to damaged blood vessels and veins. In addition, the nicotine present in cigarettes irritates the walls of your arteries and makes them harden and thicken. This may result in high blood pressure and poor blood circulation. Hence, quitting smoking may have a significant impact on your blood circulation.
- Compression stockings: These stockings are designed in a way to improve venous circulation in your legs. These stockings are tight around your foot and loose around your leg. Compression stockings can stop the blood from gathering in the veins of the legs. People with pain and swelling of their legs get instant relief by wearing these stockings. Compression stocking helps muscles in your legs to relax and contract which helps in good circulation of blood.
- Manage your stress level: Stress can have a significant impact on your physical and mental health. Although it can also impact blood circulation in your legs. You should learn strategies to prevent your stress including exercises, listening to music, meditation, yoga, deep breaths, psychotherapy, and so on. Managing stress can also improve the circulation of blood in your legs.
The bottom line
In addition to these strategies, you can also include warm baths, drinking tea such as black tea and green tea, keeping your iron levels balanced, eating oily fish such as salmon, sardines, tuna, or mackerel, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing intake of saturated fats. People who experience symptoms of poor blood circulation must talk to their healthcare provider or doctor immediately. Your doctor will start diagnosis and treatment for any underlying condition if you might have. Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent you from getting complications of poor circulation of blood. We hope you find this article useful for you.
