PAD Management and Prevention: 3 Essential Lifestyle Strategies

The peripheries of your body — your arms and legs — are at the far end of the blood-pumping chain, meaning the effects of each heartbeat are weakest near your feet and hands. When a common condition called peripheral artery disease (PAD) contributes to additional reductions in blood flow, you may experience this deficiency as leg pain as you walk. This pain is known as claudication. Since September is PAD Awareness Month across the country, we want to make you aware of how lifestyle changes can help you manage it if it’s part of your life.

Cardiologist Enrique Hernandez, MD, of Advanced Vascular Cardiac & Veins in Miami, Florida, diagnoses and treats PAD when it reaches symptomatic stages. Dr. Hernandez also stresses the importance of lifestyle alterations as a key part of PAD management. 

Let’s take a closer look at PAD and its treatments and outlook. 

Recognizing PAD symptoms

In its early stages, PAD doesn’t usually display signs or symptoms, and when these start to emerge, the effects are usually mild. While PAD can affect both the arms and legs, it’s usually the legs that experience symptoms first. 

Common PAD symptoms include: 

• Muscle cramps, most often in the calves
• Leg pain when walking or working out that eases when you rest
• Feelings of coldness in one foot or leg when compared with the other
• Weakness or numbness in a leg
• Absent or weak pulse in a leg or foot
• Erectile dysfunction in men
• Changes to the skin color or texture in the legs
• Toenails that grow more slowly
• Loss of hair on the legs

Symptoms may carry over into rest or sleep, and may be severe enough to interfere with your sleep cycle. 

Essential lifestyle strategies for PAD management

Medical treatment of PAD often focuses on conditions that contribute to it, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Dr. Hernandez may also prescribe drugs to limit the risk of blood clots. 

In advanced cases, surgical approaches can restore blood flow. But, before resorting to surgery, we help you to incorporate lifestyle changes, which can be some of the most effective ways to limit the development and effects of PAD. 

Three types of lifestyle changes are key to helping manage PAD. Each has a profound impact on other health conditions, including the contributors to PAD. So incorporating these into your life will pay off across many aspects of your wellness. 

Physical activity

Although PAD may cause exertion-related leg pain, increasing physical activity is one of the best ways to improve blood flow throughout your body. It can take some effort and planning, but work toward adding 30 minutes of low-impact activity like biking, swimming, or walking five days a week to strengthen your cardiovascular health. 

Nutrition

There are no big secrets to eating in a healthy way. The DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is a great way to learn the fundamentals of an eating plan emphasizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy. 

At the same time, minimize salt and sugar intake, focus on modest amounts of healthy fats like olive oil, and limit the amounts of processed foods you eat. 

Controlling health conditions

Managing conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes can help reduce the impacts of PAD. Talk with Dr. Hernandez about targets for management goals for the conditions that affect you. 

Call or click to contact Advanced Vascular Cardiac & Veins at one of our two Miami locations at the first sign of PAD symptoms. We’ll help you make the changes you need and provide the medical expertise necessary to live comfortably.