Your heart pumps blood rich with nutrients and oxygen throughout the body. This helps keep you healthy and moving well. But circulation can get worse for a number of reasons, including conditions like deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and peripheral artery disease (PAD), or weight gain and age.
If a person is concerned about poor blood flow, they may want to avoid foods that are processed, or high in sugar, fats, or salt.
Atherosclerosis: Plaque (which contains fat and cholesterol) piles up inside your arteries, limiting blood flow. Diabetes: Having too much glucose in your blood can harm your blood vessels. Deep vein thrombosis: Your body makes a blood clot in your leg, which reduces blood flow.
Symptoms of poor circulation are often easy to spot. They include muscle cramping, constant foot pain, and pain and throbbing in the arms and legs. As well as fatigue, varicose veins, and digestive issues. Leg cramps while walking and wounds that don't seem to heal in your legs, feet, and toes are also symptoms.
Studies have shown that magnesium supplements taken by patients with heart diseases had better blood vessel function. Their hearts also showed less stress while exercising. Magnesium helps in the relaxation of blood vessels and thus, regulates blood pressure.
The B vitamin group is made up of 8 nutrients. These vitamins are essential for forming red blood cells, fighting infections, and even neurological health. One of these, in particular, vitamin B3, can help people improve blood circulation. Also called niacin, B3 reduces inflammation and bad cholesterol.
You may require medication or procedures to treat your conditions, but your doctor will also recommend lifestyle changes. Here are a few simple things you can do -- with your doctor's approval -- to increase your blood circulation. Exercise is essential for heart and circulatory health.
Tingling, numbness, and discomfort in your hands and feet
One of the signature symptoms of poor circulation is tingling in your hands and feet. As blood struggles to reach your extremities, the sensation of pin pricks are quite common, as are cold hands and feet that never seem to be warm or comfortable.
Doppler Ultrasound
Ultrasound may be used to determine which arteries are blocked. Often, angiography is used to find the specific location and pattern of any blockages. Angiography helps specifically identify the best way to correct aortoiliac disease.
Research has indicated high stress levels may lead to elevated blood pressure, which can cause poor circulation as well. To help alleviate some stress, it may be beneficial to practice meditation.
But if you feel run-down or experience frequent fatigue, it could indicate a problem with poor circulation. Poor circulation affects more than just your energy levels, however. In itself, poor circulation isn't a problem, but some of the ways it can affect you are more serious.
Impaired blood circulation is a very serious condition, which one should not ignore.
Pomegranate Juice
This juice also has nutrients, including vitamin C, which strengthens blood vessels and can improve blood flow in that way. Pomegranate juice also has nitrate, which can widen blood vessels and facilitate blood flow.
At the same time, poor circulation can keep you from losing weight, regardless of your exercise or dietary efforts. That's because slower circulation interferes with your body's fat-burning processes. So, unexplained weight gain AND difficulties losing weight could both be signs of poor circulation.
Some causes of poor circulation in the legs are life-threatening, such as deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism. DVT occurs when a blood clot forms in the leg, impacting circulation. The clot can break away and travel to the respiratory system, cutting off blood flow to the lungs (pulmonary embolism).
Sudden, severe pain or inability to move the limb.
Especially if the limb is also numb or cool to the touch, this can mean you have a severe lack of blood flow due to a blocked artery. Beside the risk of amputation, low blood flow can cause nerve damage.
Anxiety can cause changes to the heart rate and blood circulation. A faster heart rate makes it easier to flee or fight, while increased blood flow brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to the muscles. When blood vessels narrow, this is called vasoconstriction, and it can affect body temperature.
Pentoxifylline is used to improve blood flow in patients with circulation problems to reduce aching, cramping, and tiredness in the hands and feet. It works by decreasing the thickness (viscosity) of blood. This change allows your blood to flow more easily, especially in the small blood vessels of the hands and feet.