Peripheral Artery Disease, or PAD, is common, but it could have serious consequences on your body.
Peripheral Artery Disease happens when your arteries narrow, usually due to fatty plaque buildup. PAD can happen in any blood vessel, but it most commonly affects the legs rather than the arms. That reduced blood flow can have an impact on your daily life.
Dr. Eugen Ivan, a cardiologist at Memorial Health, said the main symptoms limit mobility.
“The main symptoms are what we call claudication,” he said “The most common manifestation is pain in the calves when you walk; that limits your ability to walk. Most people who have this condition, they will stop after a while, and that they can resume walking, but it is, of course, very limiting in terms of lifestyle,” Ivan said.
According to the CDC, other symptoms could include shiny skin on the legs, cold or numb toes, hair loss, and leg sores or ulcers that will not heal. In the most severe cases, PAD can even leave you with a permanent disability.
“In more advanced forms, if you don’t have enough blood flow to your legs, the tissue will start to die off and it can lead to gangrene and tissue loss and many times unfortunately to loss of their legs,” Ivan said.
Prevention is the best cure when it comes to PAD. Smoking is the main risk factor for the disease.
“The main risk factor for that is smoking. Over 80% of the patients who have this disease are either current or former smokers. So, patients who are smoking, they should definitely stop. If they don’t, the risk of limb loss and bad outcomes is much, much higher than if they did,” Ivan said.
Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are also risk factors. Try to manage your symptoms before PAD can develop.
If you have PAD, there are still ways to treat it. A couple of lifestyle changes, such as giving up smoking, managing your diabetes and exercising, could slow or halt PAD’s progression entirely. Or, you could receive a stent to open your arteries back up.
“The mainstay of therapy is stenting of the artery, which is putting a metal mesh scaffold inside the artery in order to keep it open for a long term,” Ivan said.
Heart month is nearing its end, but there’s never a bad time of the year to take care of your heart. If you have PAD or any other heart condition and want a safe way to exercise, check out Memorial Health’s Cardio Rehab Center. They offer supervised workouts so you can live your fullest, healthiest life.
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