During any physical activity, the legs primarily bear the brunt of the load. Regular pain and fatigue at the end of the day signal that some negative processes have begun in the lower extremities. Timely examination and the right course of treatment will help stop the disease and prevent complications.
The therapist will collect anamnesis and conduct an initial examination to understand why your legs ache. Based on this, he will make a conclusion about the further course of treatment. Depending on the underlying cause of your leg pain, he may refer you to:
Hardware and laboratory research methods will confirm or refute the preliminary diagnosis, help determine the stage of the disease and the possible presence of background inflammation. Next, the specialist will prescribe a medication regimen and give the necessary recommendations.
Pain and any other abnormal symptoms in the legs should never be ignored. They reflect hidden problems that can lead to disability.
The first reason for excessive stress on the limbs. Muscles and joints often cannot cope with it. The process of deformation begins, which leads to dysfunction.
Extra pounds are most often caused by poor nutrition:
All 3 factors influence metabolic processes. Harmful substances and breakdown products are not eliminated on time and settle on the walls of blood vessels, disrupting blood circulation, cellular respiration and the saturation of tissues with vitamins and minerals.
The cause of atherosclerosis is cholesterol plaques that clog blood vessels. Poor permeability causes pain and discomfort in the legs. Severe discomfort indicates a more serious problem - the appearance of a blood clot. Only immediate contact with a doctor will save the leg from amputation.
The main signs of varicose veins:
If left untreated, vascular damage leads to thrombophlebitis, which in turn leads to pulmonary thromboembolism. An artery in the lungs becomes blocked by a detached blood clot, which can be fatal.
Middle-aged women are more susceptible to varicose veins. It is a mistake to say that only overweight people suffer from it.
Short self-limiting attacks of pain in the legs are a sign of disorders in the nervous system. Unpleasant sensations in the hip are usually associated with pinching of the sciatic nerve. Most often people suffer from this problem:
The root cause of osteoporosis is usually sought in a lack of calcium or in its poor absorption. Most often, this disease affects older people. Self-medication can alleviate symptoms, but only temporarily. It is better to immediately consult a doctor who will prescribe medications and physical treatments.
Any pathology of the joints entails pain in the lower extremities and deformation of the entire musculoskeletal system. Arthritis is often accompanied by:
Both diseases are treated by an orthopedic traumatologist. He issues referrals for necessary studies and monitors the treatment process.
Osteochondrosis occurs in the lower back, but the pain is felt in the legs, especially the hips and legs. Due to this dislocation, diagnosis may take some time. The disease is characterized by attacks of pain, which are eliminated by intramuscular administration of anti-inflammatory drugs.
Fractures or severe bruises always disrupt the integrity of the bone, which can lead to tissue suppuration. This disease is called osteomyelitis and, if not properly treated, can be fatal.
Myositis is a pathological phenomenon in the muscles, characterized by severe inflammation. Occur after an infectious disease, when bacteria locally infect muscle tissue.
Autoimmune pathology of the muscles and joints of the legs is accompanied by attacks of severe pain, alternating with remission. Often has a hereditary predisposition.
The clinical picture is as follows: antibodies begin to attack healthy cells of their own body, quickly destroying connective tissue. This is what causes all the symptoms.
The disease is difficult to treat, but if you regularly follow all the rules, it becomes possible to adhere to the normal rhythm of life.
Flat feet are the most common disease in people of any age. Characterized by the development of a pathological structure of the foot. It can be either a symptom or an independent disease. Any disorder in the musculoskeletal system gradually spreads to neighboring areas, causing negative changes. At first, your legs ache up to your knees, then fatigue and malaise rise higher.
Damage from many years ago can make itself felt due to excessive physical activity or sudden changes in weather conditions. Even knowing the nature of the pain, it is necessary to contact a traumatologist, especially if the symptoms intensify.
Poor or poor nutrition affects the entire body. Weak immunity is unable to fight infection. A lack of calcium and phosphorus weakens bones, and a deficiency of iron reduces hemoglobin levels, which affects the efficiency of blood circulation.
To identify the causes of aching pain in the legs, a detailed examination of the patient should be carried out using various diagnostic methods. The latter can be used:
The doctor chooses methods based on the diagnosis and medical history. Some diseases have similar symptoms and fundamentally different approaches to treatment. Therefore, experts do not advise making decisions on your own without tests.
Drugs are prescribed in accordance with:
The most commonly used are painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. Additionally, vitamin and mineral complexes are prescribed.
An additional set of exercises for varicose veins is used to:
Before gymnastics, you should definitely consult your doctor.
Physiotherapy is designed to increase the effectiveness of drug treatment and exercise therapy.
Most often used:
With an injured spine, ventilation of the lungs worsens, as the mobility of the diaphragm and the muscle strength of the intercostal spaces decrease. To eliminate these troubles, a physiotherapist may prescribe breathing exercises.
The most popular procedure is massage. A special execution technique is aimed at:
The most common reasons for surgery are:
Popular wisdom knows what to do if your legs ache. Natural recipes help relieve pain and inflammation, that is, they treat symptomatically without getting to the root of the problem. Some doctors prescribe herbal teas and natural fortified mixtures for general strengthening of the body. But you should not use traditional medicine without consulting a specialist, so as not to interfere with the effect of taking medications.
Rub recipe for leg injuries: mix aloe juice, menthol oil, camphor and cloves in equal parts. Rub up to three times a day into the area of pain. Apply a bandage on top.
All preventive measures are aimed at improving lifestyle:
The health of the lower extremities depends on many factors, the leading of which are a healthy lifestyle and the absence of pathologies. When your legs ache, only a specialist can determine the cause and treatment.
Where does discomfort come from and when should you urgently consult a doctor?
Pain in the legs is an unpleasant phenomenon, although not surprising. The lower extremities take on more stress during the day than any other part of the musculoskeletal system. Especially if you have a standing job or, let’s say, you’re into something like triathlon.
The pain can vary over a very wide range: from mild numbness and pulsation, which go away on their own in a few minutes, to debilitating pulling sensations or cramps that can interrupt even a night's sleep. Fortunately, in most cases such attacks do not threaten anything serious. However, there are options...
But before we find out the causes of discomfort, let’s figure out when you shouldn’t reflect on the question: “Why do your legs hurt?”, but should move as quickly as possible (on your own or with someone’s help) in the direction of a doctor.
If you don’t have any of the listed symptoms, you can exhale: most likely, nothing bad is happening to your legs. Of course, this does not mean that you can ignore discomfort. But the chances are high that you can figure out the reasons on your own. Let's get started.
Apply a bag of ice (or, for example, frozen peas or other processed foods that you have in your freezer) to the area from which you feel the pain is coming from. The duration of the Leg pain compress is 15–20 minutes, repeat three times a day as necessary.
After making sure that there are no dangerous symptoms right now and having alleviated the condition, you can try to independently analyze what is causing the discomfort. In fact, there can be a lot of reasons for leg pain. Leg pain. Here are a few of the most common ones.
Or, simply put, sore throat. Maybe you've overexerted yourself after neglecting exercise for a long time. Or you chose not very comfortable shoes. Or, planning a 10-kilometer run, you forgot about warming up and cooling down. All this often becomes the cause of sore throat, which, fortunately, goes away quite quickly on its own.
Perhaps you recently stumbled, but did not attach any importance to it. Meanwhile, the awkwardness led to a slight sprain of the ligaments or rupture of a certain number of tendon fibers. Such injuries are not fatal and most often heal on their own, but they can cause several unpleasant minutes, or even hours.
Even at the very beginning, this disease affects the peripheral nerves, which results in numbness, goosebumps and pain in the lower legs, calves and feet. Discomfort most often occurs during sleep.
Therefore, if goosebumps and cramps in the calf muscles begin to haunt you too often, it would be a good idea to check your blood sugar levels and consult with an endocrinologist.
Almost all expectant mothers are familiar with rather painful leg cramps. The cause of discomfort is mineral metabolism disorders that often accompany pregnancy. Most often, cramps occur due to a deficiency of potassium, calcium, magnesium or vitamin B6. And doctors are well aware of this: when there are complaints, they prescribe complexes of vitamins and microelements to patients that can compensate for the lack of important substances.
Cramps and pain in the calves are the most common symptoms of calcium deficiency. Please note: even if you suspect this particular option, only a doctor can make a diagnosis and prescribe any medications. Therefore, be sure to consult with your therapist and take the tests he recommends.
With varicose veins of the lower extremities, the functioning of the valves that allow blood to pass through the veins is disrupted. Because of this, the veins increase in size, the outflow of blood worsens, swelling and pain occur. There can be many reasons for varicose veins, and any discomfort that occurs requires consultation with a phlebologist.
Muscle pain of this origin is of a pulling or tugging nature and may intensify during physical activity or in cold and damp weather. If you suspect myalgia, you should contact a neurologist: he will make a diagnosis and, if necessary, prescribe you anti-inflammatory drugs and pain-relieving gels and ointments.
This disease can also be recognized visually: it is often accompanied by an increase in the size of the leg and/or the appearance of a protruding bone. A companion to developing flat feet is aching pain in the feet and legs, which increases in the evening, as well as rapid fatigue when walking. With such problems, you should consult an orthopedist.
This disease makes itself felt by shooting pain from the heels to the buttocks, mainly along the back or side of the leg. For help, you should contact a neurologist or a spine surgeon (a specialist in the treatment of the spine).
Be that as it may, it would be useful to remind you that only a doctor can make a diagnosis. Therefore, if your legs hurt regularly, consult at least a therapist.
There is probably no person who has never in his life encountered such a problem as severe pain in the legs; Moreover, most of us regularly suffer from these painful sensations. However, despite this “constancy”, only a few decide to go to a specialist; the majority believe that this pain syndrome is a common consequence of a hard day at work, and expect that after a night's rest the pain will go away.
Of course, in the morning we do not experience any discomfort, however, the fact that by the evening all the painful sensations will return should suggest that we still have some health problems. In this article, we invite you to understand what can cause severe pain in your legs, as well as what needs to be done if your legs hurt badly.
The most common cause of regular, severe leg pain, at least in women, is varicose veins. The essence of this disease is poor circulation and thinning of the walls of blood vessels. This disease occurs as a result of walking in high heels, as well as with improper load on the legs, for example, sitting or, conversely, standing work. If treatment for varicose veins is not started in time, then this disease can develop into ailments such as phlebitis and thrombophlebitis;
Phlebitis. The essence of this disease is inflammation of the veins; its more advanced stage is the disease thrombophlebitis, in which a blood clot forms in an inflamed vein. This disease is very dangerous, as there is a risk of rupture of the formed blood clot; the larger the gap, the greater the danger it poses to your health;
Various diseases of the lymph nodes and blood vessels. Diseases such as lymphangitis (an inflammatory process in the lymphatic vessels) and lymphadenitis (an inflammatory process in the lymph nodes) can also cause severe pain in the legs. The cause of these ailments is the penetration of staphylococcus into the lymphatic vessels and lymph nodes in various skin diseases;
Any foot deformities, flat feet. The presence of any deformities in the foot area will always provoke the regular occurrence of severe pain in the legs. These deformations occur as a result of wearing uncomfortable, for example, tight or narrow-toed shoes;
Spasms and muscle tension. These unpleasant sensations arise due to prolonged wearing of high-heeled or platform shoes. And the point here is that thanks to such shoes, our muscles in the arch of the foot are constantly under tension, which in turn leads to spasms of the calf muscles. By the way, in this situation such consequences are quite normal;
Any problems with the spine. No matter how strange the connection between the spine and pain in the legs may seem to us, however, even ordinary poor posture or simply scoliosis can cause pain in the legs. By the way, with some diseases of the spine, for example, with existing disorders in the intervertebral discs, pain in the spine itself may not bother you;
Any arterial diseases: atherosclerosis of the lower extremities, arterial thrombosis, endarteritis. All of the above diseases, oddly enough, most often affect the male half of humanity. The causes of problems with arteries are smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, liver and biliary tract diseases, diabetes mellitus, excess body weight, and high cholesterol in the blood. All these diseases are very dangerous, and if left untreated, untreated can lead to very sad consequences, namely, amputation of a limb;
Previously acquired injuries. Despite the fact that previously received injuries, bruises and sprains have long been forgotten by us, they will actually bother us throughout our entire lives.
As you can see, there are many reasons that can cause severe pain in the legs, so in order to avoid serious consequences and complications in the future, it is imperative to contact an appropriate specialist to identify a diagnosis and prescribe adequate treatment. If you have regular pain in your legs, you should contact the following specialists:
Most often, we do not attach due importance to leg pain, and only a few of us seek help from a specialist, however, for some symptoms, it is imperative to consult a doctor. So, you shouldn’t delay going to the doctor in the following cases:
if the skin turns blue and swells;
if the pain is acute and sharp and does not go away for more than two days;
if your feet become numb and cold;
if pain appears in the lower and upper parts of the leg;
if severe swelling appears after the injury.
So, if your leg pain is associated with a disease such as varicose veins, then in the initial stages of this disease a specialist will prescribe taking venotonic drugs, wearing special stockings or tights that can “support” the veins and blood vessels, as well as a course of physical therapy – All these measures can prevent the development of the disease. If this disease is detected in advanced stages, then in approximately half of the cases treatment consists of surgical intervention.
If pain in the legs is a consequence of foot deformation or flat feet, you need to contact an orthopedist, who, in turn, will prescribe you to undergo computer optical diagnostics, thanks to which a specific diagnosis can be identified. The patient is also prescribed to wear special insoles, which will help stop the progression of the disease. Another treatment option is special gymnastics for the feet.
If your pain in the legs is caused by any diseases of the spine, then you need to visit not only an orthopedist, but also a neurologist, who will help you get rid of your problem. First of all, the patient is prescribed an ultrasound and x-ray, which are necessary to establish a specific diagnosis, on which, in turn, the treatment method depends.
As we have already said, most of us are familiar with the problem of leg pain, however, each of us faces this ailment for completely different reasons. Some people's feet hurt after walking in heels for a long time, which in turn is quite natural, while others experience these excruciating pains due to some disease. In a situation where your pain is regular, it is imperative to contact a specialist, thanks to whom your cure is possible. However, if pain in your legs does not bother you often, then you can resort to some methods that will help you get rid of the pain syndrome.
First of all, it is worth remembering that in case of inflammatory processes in the legs, you should never use hot compresses - they will only aggravate your condition. Remember that all inflammatory processes can only be stopped with cold! If there is an inflammatory process, it is recommended to use lotions, antiseptic ointments and cold compresses. Also, under no circumstances should you rub the sore spot - this process also helps to warm up the skin area, which in turn can harm you;
if pain in the legs occurs due to any damage, for example, due to sprained ligaments and muscles, then in this case it is recommended to use warm compresses. You can make a hot foot bath with sea salt. Another option is to apply a warming ointment to the affected area of the skin, and then use a bandage made of natural wool;
play sports. The best option is swimming in the pool. It is also recommended to engage in walking and cycling as often as possible;
Regular walking barefoot on the grass also helps relieve fatigue and eliminate pain. The more often you perform this procedure, the less often you will experience pain in your legs. If you do not have this opportunity, then you can resort to the following method: pour hot water into a basin, after placing a layer of river pebbles on the bottom. Using massaging movements, try rolling pebbles with your feet;
When you come home from work, lie with your back on the sofa and raise your legs on its back, lie in this position for about fifteen minutes - this will help “establish” normal blood circulation. By the way, our legs, in principle, like to be in a horizontal, “elevated” position, therefore, when sitting on the sofa, it is recommended to place a small pillow under the knees;
massage is another remedy that can eliminate pain, so stretch your legs regularly;
If you have a sedentary job, you should regularly give proper physical activity to your legs. To do this, you need to take a break from work for five minutes at least once an hour: during this time, just take a walk. If your work forces you to constantly be in a standing position, you should, on the contrary, give unloading to your legs;
and, perhaps, one of the main rules is to choose the right and comfortable shoes. Alternate wearing high-heeled shoes with shoes with low wedges of two to four centimeters. It is also recommended to avoid shoes with high platforms and shoes with narrow toes. In addition, you should avoid frequently wearing shoes with thin soles, as they contribute to the development of flat feet.
Excruciating pain in the legs is familiar to most adults, but only a few decide to see a doctor. There is an opinion that pain in the legs is the lot of old people, and nothing can be done about it. But practice shows the opposite: in the vast majority of cases, timely diagnosis and qualified treatment have every chance of success.
The leg (lower limb) is made up of muscles, skin, bones, joints and other structures. All of them are permeated with nerve fibers and contain pain receptors - any structure can become a source of pain.
In a healthy person, pain in the legs can be associated with physical activity or an uncomfortable body position - for example, with prolonged standing. In women, in addition, it occurs during pregnancy and when using certain oral contraceptives. We will not dwell on this - we will consider only cases of pain caused by disorders in the body.
Pain in the legs, not directly related to vascular damage, occurs with many diseases:
An angiologist surgeon needs to be able to distinguish these conditions from pain associated with vascular changes in the extremities, since most people, when pain occurs, do not know which doctor to turn to for help. It is vascular changes in the lower extremities that often occur and bring the greatest suffering to patients; they require a particularly careful approach to diagnosis and treatment.
In medical practice, various names for the same vascular disorders are used. In order not to confuse the reader, we will adhere to the designations adopted by the International Classification of Diseases ICD-10
Vascular diseases of the legs are divided into diseases of the arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels.
Pain in the legs is caused by:
Atherosclerosis of the arteries of the lower extremities
Among diseases of the arteries of the lower extremities, atherosclerosis is the most common - in almost 90% of cases. It refers to obliterating vascular diseases (obliterating - leading to closure, fusion). Previously, the disease mainly affected older men. Unfortunately, there is now a tendency towards rejuvenation of this disease, and atherosclerosis occurs even in middle age. Cases of obliterating atherosclerosis in women have also become more frequent.
Risk factors are well known - smoking, low physical activity, lifestyle changes, hereditary factors, hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, liver and biliary tract diseases, obesity, high cholesterol in the blood.
During the disease process, plaques consisting of cholesterol, other fats, calcium and connective tissue form on the inner walls of the arteries. The lumen of the arteries narrows. At rest, arterial circulation in the lower extremities may be sufficient, but during physical activity the increased oxygen demand of the muscles cannot be satisfied. The muscles respond to this with pain, which is how intermittent claudication appears. When walking, especially uphill, pain occurs in the calf muscles, forcing the patient to periodically stop for it to pass. If pain occurs in the entire leg, it means that the arteries at the pelvic level are affected by the pathological process. Unlike radiculitis, pain does not depend on sudden movements or turns of the body.
Instead of pain, you may experience cramps, weakness, or a feeling of heaviness in your legs.
The legs become cold and pale, and no pulse can be felt on them. At the last stage, trophic ulcers and foci of gangrene may form. If gangrene develops, amputation of the affected limb may be necessary to save the patient's life. Often, especially with high occlusions, when necrosis develops on the fingers, amputation is performed at the level of the upper third of the thigh, since with lower amputations it is difficult to achieve healing of the postoperative wound.
The International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 does not provide for such a diagnosis. It is necessary to use other diagnoses specified in this document - “arterial atherosclerosis”, “thromboangiitis obliterans”, “other specified peripheral vascular diseases”, “other unspecified peripheral vascular diseases”.
The disease affects mainly middle-aged and even young men. The exact cause of the disease is still not known. The role of cold and mechanical trauma, as well as autoimmune processes, is suggested.
The small arteries of the legs are affected. Unlike atherosclerosis, which develops gradually, obliterating endarteritis is characterized by an undulating course - exacerbations alternate with remissions. The symptoms and complications and outcomes are almost the same - intermittent claudication, possible amputation due to gangrene, etc.
Thrombangitis obliterans (Berger's disease)
This is a “disease of young men who smoke.” An autoimmune mechanism of development is suggested. Exacerbations alternate with remissions. Every second patient undergoes amputation at the level of the fingers, foot or thigh.
A feature of thromboangiitis obliterans and endarteritis is the symmetry of the damage to the extremities and the possible involvement in the process of not only the lower, but also the upper extremities. At the same time, atherosclerotic lesions are often unilateral and affect almost exclusively the legs.
Embolism and arterial thrombosis
In embolism, an artery is blocked by some substance (in thrombosis, a blood clot).
In the area fed by the blocked artery, diffuse pain occurs. The limb first turns pale, then turns blue. Her pulse can no longer be felt. Numbness appears, and in severe cases paralysis may develop. In such cases, if treatment is not started in a timely manner, everything ends with rapidly developing ischemia, wet gangrene and amputation of the limb.
Leg pain is accompanied by:
This disease is widespread and is a very pressing problem in medicine and cosmetology.
Phlebitis is inflammation of a vein. Thrombophlebitis is a complication of phlebitis or varicose veins of the lower extremities. With thrombophlebitis, a blood clot forms in the inflamed vein. Pain is a concern and swelling of the legs is possible.
Deep vein thrombosis is fraught with complications, the most dangerous of which are venous gangrene of the limb (with high blockage and blockage of all outflow pathways of venous blood) and pulmonary embolism. The risk of thromboembolism is highest in the presence of an unfixed - floating thrombus. The larger the detached fragment of the blood clot, the greater the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome, including death.
A common complication of deep vein thrombophlebitis is postthrombophlebitis syndrome.
It occurs in almost all patients who have suffered deep vein thrombosis, since it leads to the destruction of the valve apparatus and disruption of venous blood flow.
After a long static load, when a person stands or sits for a long time, the legs hurt and swell. These symptoms quickly subside in the lying position, especially if the legs are elevated.
Gradually other symptoms appear. The skin and subcutaneous tissue of the affected area thicken. Pigmentation of the skin of the legs, venous dermatitis and eczema, and trophic ulcers may occur. At night, muscle cramps in the lower extremities often bother me. Dilatation of the veins of the legs during post-thrombotic disease develops as a compensatory mechanism, due to a violation of the outflow of blood through the deep veins.
Diseases of the lymph nodes and blood vessels
These are lymphadenitis (inflammation of the lymph nodes) and lymphangitis (inflammation of the lymphatic vessels). The most common “culprit” is staphylococcus, which penetrates the lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels in various inflammatory skin diseases.
The doctors of our department have at their disposal effective methods for diagnosing and treating diseases accompanied by leg pain.
The pain cannot be tolerated! Pain is your body's signal for help. The earlier you start treating diseases, the easier and faster it is to achieve a cure or stable remission.
If pain occurs, you should consult a doctor. Already during the examination, the doctor will either make an accurate diagnosis or suggest that you undergo diagnostic tests to clarify it for more effective subsequent treatment. The department has a modern ultrasound machine for diagnosing vascular diseases. If necessary, an ultrasound examination of the abdominal and pelvic organs is also performed. Blood tests are taken to assess blood glucose levels, cholesterol levels, blood viscosity and other biochemical indicators.
The earlier treatment is started, the better results we can achieve! We have at our disposal effective drugs for the treatment of diseases of the arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels.
Modern physiotherapeutic devices available in our department not only relieve pain, but also help in the treatment of the underlying disease. We use laser therapeutic procedures (external laser therapy and intravenous laser irradiation of blood), magnetic therapy, magnetic sound therapy, external and injection ozone therapy, light chromotherapy, variable pneumocompression (hardware lymphatic drainage massage), and electrical myostimulation.
After the course of treatment, the department’s specialists will give you individual recommendations, compliance with which will consolidate the achieved therapeutic effect.
Timely treatment will prevent the development of serious complications and give you a good chance of saying goodbye to leg pain.
Pain in the legs is an unpleasant phenomenon, although not surprising. The lower extremities take on more stress during the day than any other part of the musculoskeletal system. Especially if you have a standing job or, let’s say, you’re into something like triathlon.
The pain can vary over a very wide range: from mild numbness and pulsation, which go away on their own in a few minutes, to debilitating pulling sensations or cramps that can interrupt even a night's sleep. Fortunately, in most cases such attacks do not threaten anything serious. However, there are options...
When to contact a doctor:
? The pain prevents you from walking or putting weight on your leg.
? An open fracture or deep cut is obvious.
? You observe several symptoms at once - pain, swelling, redness, a sharp increase in temperature in the limb.
? Before you felt the pain, you heard a loud click, like something popping out in your leg, or a grinding sound.
You need to call an ambulance immediately:
? Signs of infection are observed: the area of skin on the leg turns red and becomes hot to the touch, all this is accompanied by an increase in body temperature as a whole.
? The leg is swollen, the skin is pale and/or feels very cold.
? Swelling is observed in both legs and is accompanied by some breathing problems.
? Your shins hurt a lot after sitting for a long time. For example, after a long trip on a bus or air flight.
? You observe any painful symptoms that develop in your legs without any obvious cause.
Schedule a visit to your physician or surgeon soon if:
? You regularly experience pain during or after walking.
? You are plagued by swelling of the lower extremities.
? The pain, which was initially almost unnoticeable, seems to increase over several days in a row.
? You have noticed swollen veins on your leg, the touch of which causes discomfort.
What to do right now if your legs hurt
? Leave your feet alone
Just give them a rest: lie down, if possible, raising your legs slightly above heart level (this can be done with a bolster placed under your ankles). This position will improve venous blood flow, reduce swelling and relax muscles.
? Apply a cold compress
Apply a bag of ice (or, for example, frozen peas or other processed foods that you have in your freezer) to the area from which you feel the pain is coming from. The duration of the compress is 15–20 minutes, repeat three times a day as necessary.
? Take an over-the-counter pain reliever
Preparations based on ibuprofen and naproxen sodium have proven themselves well.
Massage helps in cases where the pain is caused by a cramp or occurs after physical activity - a long walk or jog.
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