What causes water retention and how to deal with swollen ankles and fingers
If yous've ever spent an afternoon on the burrow with the Idiot box and a bag of salted chips, or gone to bed with a abdomen full of Teochew porridge and its accoutrements of salted eggs, fish, vegetables and cured meats, you're probably familiar with the feeling.
You wake upwardly the next forenoon feeling puffed up and heavier than usual. Your band feels like it'due south strangling your finger. Instead of ankles, you lot at present have cankles. And when you printing on the swollen areas for a few seconds, you get weird temporary dimples. In other words, you could very well stand in for the Michelin Human.
That's water memory or edema in action.
WATER Retention CAUSE #one: Salt
The most common cause for edema is eating also much sodium-loaded food. This upsets your body's sodium-to-water residuum, which it needs to function. As a result, your torso produces an anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) that nudges the kidneys to concord on to water if the water content in our claret is lower than usual, said Associate Professor Chionh Chang Yin, the chief of Changi General Hospital's Department Of Renal Medicine.
READ: Beauty Fixes: How to sort out that puffy face and bloated situation in four weeks
Once you have drunk adequate fluids and the water content in the blood is restored, your body stops secreting ADH, he said. In that sense, it doesn't actually assist for you lot to drink less water to minimise edema.
But edema isn't just about your torso holding on to insufficient fluids. It also has something to do with how fluids are diverted and pooled in certain parts of the body, which leads us to the adjacent betoken below.
WATER RETENTION CAUSE #2: GRAVITY
If you've been standing a lot and have swollen ankles or legs, that's gravity's consequence on your body'south fluids. "It reflects a shift of water between physical compartments inside the body, and in this case, it is related to gravity," said Dr Chionh.
The increased volume of blood in your legs and feet raises the force per unit area inside the blood vessels. "The backlog fluid in the blood vessels then leaks out into the tissue in the legs, causing them to slap-up." This may explicate the swelling in the lower legs some runners experience afterwards running.
And it's non merely water. "Edema may be a result of more blood flowing down to the legs than the blood flowing upward from information technology," said Dr Ian Phoon, who heads the Cardiovascular Diseases Workgroup at SingHealth Polyclinics.
H2o Retentiveness CAUSE #3: HORMONES (FOR WOMEN)
For women, edema could sometimes be office of the dreaded premenstrual syndrome or PMS. "Some women may observe a gain of 1kg to 2kg, which is gradually lost once menstruation begins. Such rapid change in weight is likely due to the alter of the h2o memory condition," said Dr Phoon.
But he added that you can't always blame edema for the bloated feeling equally it could also "be a feeling of gas in the stomach or a feeling of indigestion".
Your body doesn't produce more fluids when you have edema; instead, it stores and channels fluids. But pregnancy is a time when your body actually produces fluids – most 50 per cent more blood and body fluids, according to the American Pregnancy Association.
The extra fluid is needed to soften the body and enable it to expand as the baby develops. "Extra fluid also helps prepare the pelvic joints and tissues to open up for delivery. The extra fluids account for approximately 25 per cent of the weight women gain during pregnancy," noted its website.
WATER Retentiveness CAUSE #iv: CERTAIN MEDICINES
Sure medicines can cause edema as a side event. The Mayo Clinic website lists, among others: High blood force per unit area medicines, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, steroids, oestrogens and certain diabetes medicines known as thiazolidinediones.
HOW TO SOLVE EDEMA?
It should be as piece of cake as belongings back on those chips and going to the toilet more, right? Unfortunately, the science isn't like that. For starters, your body is made of a lot of water.
Almost 60 per cent of your body consists of water, said Dr Phoon. "Near v litres of water is in the blood vessels, while the rest are in the cells, organs, and tissues of the body."
READ: Is heavy menstrual bleeding normal? And what does eating pineapple take to do with information technology?
And while this pct can be lower in those who are obese and slightly lower in women than in men, he said, it doesn't modify much no matter how much water you drink or don't.
But relieving edema is actually quite simple: "Past elevating one'due south legs (and reversing the furnishings of gravity), or wearing compression stockings during prolonged standing", said Dr Phoon. "Moving the muscles of the affected limbs also helps to 'pump' the excess fluids away."
But Accept NOTE OF More SERIOUS Water Retention Problems
Even so, "persistent or severe edema" warrants a consultation with a doc, said Dr Phoon, as there are many possible causes, including "serious underlying medical conditions such as heart failure or kidney damage".
Meanwhile, Dr Chionh advised that if a swelling in the leg or body is accompanied by other symptoms such every bit "markedly frothy urine, breathlessness or reduced tolerance of physical activity", it may suggest edema related to an underlying medical condition.
blountsieneat1998.blogspot.com
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/wellness/water-retention-edema-swelling-ankles-legs-causes-solutions-236876
0 Response to "What causes water retention and how to deal with swollen ankles and fingers"
Post a Comment