A reader’s 60-year-old neighbour has developed a swollen left leg and foot.  The swelling is particularly bad at the end of the day.  Although there is no pain and his GP isn’t concerned, the condition is uncomfortable and unsightly.  Can readers offer any advice?

---

FREE REPORT: 100 WAYS TO LIVE TO BE 100

Click here for your free report ‘100 ways to live to be 100’

My 86yr old aunt is now quite unwell and becoming more and more frail by the day and amongst her other problems/symptoms she had painful swollen legs. We finally persuaded her to have a session with an accupucturist who came to the house (no mean feat!) and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes - the swelling and pain disappeared in a matter of minutes! Well worth a go if you ask me. Good luck, Monica

A swollen foot is indicative of water retention. This in turn indicates that the body's physiological system(s) which is responsible for retaining water e.g. acidity, excretion, blood cell content, osmotic pressure; and hence of absorption and retention of minerals, is destabilised. The swelling may be associated with diabetes, perhaps at a presymptomatic stage.  Virtual Scanning has been used in the case of an elderly diabetic man in his 70's who, as a result of the swelling had been immobilised. His GP gave him antibiotics - presumably as a precaution against infection - but could do no more. Virtual Scanning successfully treated and removed the swelling and returned to the man his mobility.

Of perhaps greater concern is that the continuation of the problem will lead to circulatory problems and damage to the blood vessels or that it could be related to high blood pressure.  It would seem sensible that this person presses his GP for greater advice. Surely his GP SHOULD be concerned.   

I had 2 types of leg swelling: one caused by sluggish lymph system where massage and acupuncture helped; the other caused by a protein deficiency where I had to increase my intake of protein. The protein deficiency can be detected by a blood test.

My sister has something similar.  Her GP diagnosed a "silent thrombosis".  No treatment, just an elastic stocking to be put on before she gets out of bed.

It's shocking to me that the GP isn't concerned.  My first thought would be to get a new GP. 

If the GP is totally satisfied that heart and blood pressure are OK it may be possible to reduce the swelling using a Flowtron machine. With this you wear a long "double walled boot" into which air is pumped and released. The resulting compression helps to mechanically reduce the swelling. The more sophisticated models have compartmentalised boots so that the pressure is wave like ffrom toes to groin. These can be useful where the swelling is traumatic in origin or down to poor lymphatic drainage, but I will reiterate no heart or BP problems should exist. However there must be a reason for the swelling and I agree push your GP or find another one. The above solution may help until a cause is found.

My aunt and mother had this too, and there is a syndrome (that neither can remember the name of) that this is the main symptom of.  (They found the name on the internet) It eventually went away for them...  Also, lower leg swelling is sometimes related to a weakness of kidney function.  An idea might be to find a practitioner who uses the SCIO biofeedback device, which detects stress in the system and can also give therapy.  Using this device, I've had phenomenal results for swelling....

 

If the swelling is in  one leg, I suppose it is not a cardiac condition. Then it must be lymfedema or insufficient venous retour to the heart.

What you can do: lymph drainage if it is the former condition.

For both: keep the leg high as soon as you sit down, don't stand too long! Also sleep with the leg higher. Walking, and surely biking and swimming are very good!  

Try to get rid of some water, by drinking camomile tea for instance.

Get a good dose of vitamins and surely rutin, mayby OPC or pycnogenol

Good luck!

marleen Nys
 

Why only the Left leg? Is it possible this person is chronically constipated? Because of the way the deep arteries cross over the deep veins, chronic constipation can press the artery onto the vein, restricting venous return.

Hmmmm

No-one so far has mentioned exercise.

Swollen feet and legs is a sure sign of a body in poor shape.

Maybe a recumbent cycle would do the trick, stimulate lymphatic and venous return. 20 minutes a day is good, 30 minutes better and 40 minutes best. This routine twice a day would be better still.

Get the heart rate up over 120.

Getting rid of some water also sounds like a good idea. Get rid of flour out of the diet, eat more fruit and vegetables and drink some of the herbal teas and you should definitely lose some water.

 

John Miller

Several years ago I had the same problem, and at one point my veins became infected and I had a very painful period. The skin doctor told me I would have to wear elastic stockings for the rest of my lilfe.

However my phisiotherapist gave me exercises which has cure my condition completely. I only wear an elastic stocking when I am on a traansatlantic flight.

 If you want to know about the exercises I do send me a message.

 Regards, Anton Philips

 

 

Greetings!
I am from USA the state of Texas.  This is my very first comment.  
I had to write since I work in this field.  I won't get into all the pomp and circumstance regarding my title, but, I must let you know that there are so many knee-jerk fixes out there it tends to confuse a person.  I studied many different nutritional products from traditional retail products to network marketing only promoted products.  The reality of it is, only 2% of all nutritional products offered out there are toxic, ineffective or both according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.  
A swollen left leg indicates a left kidney or possibly both not functioning properly.  The pair to the kidneys is the adrenal glands.  The adrenal glands are responsible for the proper fluid balance in the body.  What would cause the kidneys to not properly filter, age?  Never.  There are a few possibilities and the most common causes are undiagnosed dental infections and a scar or trauma perhaps a blow to the head reflexing to one or both kidney meridians.  Both of these can be absolutely resolved.
I do not believe in knee-jerking symptoms but getting to the actual root cause of the problem.  So, without testing you,
I can only recommend you try a few things and watch the progress.  
I would love to be able to say, just go down to your local health food store and pick up some Ginseng, or some root or whatever, but remember, almost everything out there is toxic, ineffective or both.  A product may have started off really good, organic etc.  but after processing and preserving, it was rendered useless.  Not to mention, the mandatory laser treating they do to most products.  This laser kills every living thing in a good product.  So, shipping is important.  UPS here in the USA guarantees never to irradiate anything which is why the Doctor I work with uses UPS only.  
For recommendations, stay away from the basic table salt, it is highly heated and absolutely tears up the kidneys.  Not only does it tear up the kidneys but creates a low HCL condition in the body.  If your body can't product HCL, the digestion goes bad and parasites that enter through the mouth.
They (parasites) can then pass the stomach into the colon and here is the beginnings of cancers of the various sorts.  Not to mention raging dental problems as the parasites infiltrate the gums causing entamoeba gingivitis.  We use Pink Salt.  1/2 a teaspoon daily is a good start.  I put mine in water and it is delicious.  Of course, you need enough water to flush it as well.  I use a 20 oz.  bottle of Ozarka for the 1/2 teaspoon of pink salt.  There are several things we have for kidneys/adrenals in combination with pink salt.  The DHLA nanoplex quenches every known free radical in the body and assists the kidneys and liver.   
The liver is the pain control center, by the way.  I don't believe you mentioned any pain though.  
DHLA is good for the brain, repairs DNA strand breaks, clears up to 60% of cellular DNA debris,  helps reverse arterial damage and chronic illness, activates the longevity gene, is a natural anti-inflammatory agent and increases ATP synthesis.  I would do 1/2 teaspoon sipped slowly twice daily.
Kidney Complex 2 caps 3x daily
Minerals are the basics to fighting infection and living so I would go with Coral Complex 2 caps 3x daily unless your digestion is bad, then I would go with Coral Legend and Aloe Drink mixed.  Because of your age and the high incidence of bone infection due to other undiagnosed infections, I would include Bone and Joint Complex 1 cap 3x daily.
Finally, for the gums.  I would use Neem Oil rubbed into the gums nightly.  It only takes a few drops and yes it is nasty!  But is works.  Neem has many uses.  It is great on sores, cuts, scrapes, in the ears to prevent bacterial infections and will quench baterial infections that have set in.
I had to really consider the kidney complex or ginseng nanoplex.  They are both good.  Kidney is a little more targeted
and Ginseng is broader and handles hormone, diabetic, vasodilation, anti-platelet aggregation, and radiation protection to name just a few.  
If this is something you would like to try or even consider,  send me a line and give me a few more details of your health condition. Are you up several times during the night urinating, how is your digestion, are you consipated, do you sleep at least 8 hours uninterrupted, do you get headaches, do you have any surgical scars or major traumas?
I hope this helps and is not too overwhelming.
To your complete restoration,
Angeline Wieting, QRPC
it.does.work@gmail.com

---

Angeline Wieting, QRPC

This is also my first comment, motivated singularly by our helpful American friend Angeline. I have never heard such ridiculous ramblings. Her GP likely knows this is a non complicated lymphatic swelling. Non painfull single extremity swellings are nearly always self resolving and require regular ambulation +/- massage. The end.

I respect to the original poster it sounds like it's water retention - particularly with being worse by the evening. My grandma was always the same and her leg and foot would grow enormously during the day, particularly if she was standing a lot or sitting not with her feet up.

I have a swollen right leg (it's 1 1/2 inches larger circumference at the calf than my left leg). In my case it's thought it's due to a previous DVT in that leg that's damaged the one-way valves in my deep veins, and the fact that I have Factor V Leiden thrombophillia ("sticky blood"). After having to wear full length TED stockings for six months after my DVT, we discovered that once I stopped wearing them my leg started swelling again, and I now wear elasticated stockings all the time (though fortunately they're only knee length ones).

If it's only one leg though it's always worth getting it checked out properly - an ultrasound doppler scan of the leg, and a D-dimer blood test to rule out a DVT. Something like 50% of DVTs are "silent", without symptoms, or without all the classic symptoms. After my DVT three years ago, this summer I developed a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism - I'd had no previous symptoms, no DVT symptoms, and the doctors have never managed to work out where the clot originated (it's usual with PEs that a clot develops elsewhere and travels to the lung) - I just woke up one morning out of the blue unable to breathe and in an awful lot of pain. When I got to the hospital though, my D-dimer blood test result was over 3 times the normal level (D-dimer's a measure of proteins given off as a thrombosis breaks down). I'm now on warfarin for life as having had both a DVT and a PE, and having thrombophilia, I'm at greater risk of developing both in the future, and next time I might not be so lucky.