How Does High Blood Pressure Affect Your Feet?
No matter what way you look at it, high blood pressure is not good for your health.
Chronically high blood pressure always has negative effects.
Did you know that it affects your feet too?
How Do You Know High Blood Pressure Has Become a Problem?
Also called “hypertension,” high blood pressure is a problem the moment you notice it.
It creates a wide range of negative effects on your body. When it comes to your feet, you can experience:
- Cramping in your feet and legs when you exercise
- Sores on your feet or legs
- Changes in color to your feet
- Differing temperatures in your feet
- The loss of hair on your feet or legs
- Swelling in your feet and legs (also an indicator of heart disease)
If you notice any of these symptoms, you’re wise to act fast. You should schedule time to see your podiatrist and perhaps your general practitioner too.
And you should be ready to take action on your health immediately.
If you don’t, you can get ulcers. And you may even eventually need to amputate one or both of your feet.
How to Keep Hypertension in Check
Understanding how to take care of hypertension isn’t hard. The real battle lies in your mind.
What are you willing to do to get your blood pressure back in a healthy place?
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do. For example:
- Lose weight (by far the most effective thing you can do)
- 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week (pick your favorite kind so you stay motivated)
- Eat healthier (mostly vegetables, poultry, fish, and a little red meat)
- Limit sodium, sugar, and alcohol
- Stop smoking
- Drink less caffeine
- Do what you can to keep your stress under control
How Do You Make This Your New Lifestyle?
It’s easy to talk about what to do. It’s much harder to actually do it, and keep doing it.
Why?
Because most human behavioral change only happens when you finally become truly sick and tired of the way things are.
For some, that can be as simple as hearing they have to go to the doctor and get some bad news.
For others, they may need to experience ulcers or a heart attack.
Everybody has their own point where they finally realize they need to live differently. And then they become willing to do what is necessary to stay healthy.
Just remember that, though it’s hard to make these changes, you’ll feel so much better about yourself when you choose to take action.
And others will take notice.
To make it easier, you may want to join groups of others trying to make these changes too. They’ll be able to relate to the difficulties you experience.
That’s all we have for now. We’re happy to help in any way we can and wish you all the best going forward!
