Why do my legs and feet swell during a long journey? -

Old people take trains and planes for a long time. Due to lack of water and exercise, the venous blood flow speed of lower limbs will slow down. The most common phenomenon is the culprit of foot swelling. During the journey, the position of legs and feet is low when sitting, coupled with gravity, there will be poor venous blood return of lower limbs. Blood accumulates in veins for a long time, which increases the pressure of blood vessels in legs and feet and leads to telangiectasia. However, the water in the blood penetrates into the subcutaneous outside the blood vessel through the blood vessel wall, and the subcutaneous water accumulates more, resulting in swelling of the legs and feet.

As we know, people have higher arterial blood pressure and faster blood flow, while veins are just the opposite. The vein in the lower body is far from the heart. In order to prevent blood from flowing back, the human body has evolved a special tissue-venous valve, which acts like a one-way valve, allowing only venous blood to flow back to the heart, but not venous blood. But venous valves alone are not enough. Venous reflux of lower limbs also needs the help of local muscle contraction. If you sit still for a long time, the blood will lack driving force, and the flow rate of blood in pelvic cavity and lower limb veins will become very slow, and even tiny thrombus will appear. Over time, there have been problems such as edema and thrombosis.

If the water pipe is not carefully cleaned, it may be blocked by impurities and deposits, making it impossible for water to flow out. After a long time, water pipes will rust. So do human blood vessels. Once blocked, the body may "collapse" instantly. According to statistics, the death caused by thrombotic diseases has accounted for 5 1% of the total number of deaths worldwide, far exceeding the death caused by tumors, infectious diseases and respiratory diseases. So, why is there a blood clot in the human body? Who is the high risk group of thrombosis? There are coagulation system and anticoagulant system in human blood. Under normal circumstances, the two maintain a dynamic balance. However, under special circumstances, such as slow blood flow, pathological changes of coagulation factors and vascular injury, which leads to hypercoagulability or weakened anticoagulant function, this balance will be broken and people will be in a state of "easy thrombosis". Venous congestion of lower limbs even leads to thrombosis, which can lead to swelling of patients' legs and feet and fatal pulmonary embolism.

What measures should be taken?

1 Drink more water and walk more.

Try to avoid drinking alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea and sedatives, and drink more water or juice drinks; Walk around properly and do leg stretching exercises regularly; Wear loose clothes and avoid tight socks and pantyhose.

Physical exercise can be done while sitting.

1) Raise your head, expand your chest and stretch your chest and waist.

2) Bend back and forth, bend left and right, and rotate left and right to relax the chest and waist muscles.

3) Put your hands on your hips and stretch your muscles after stretching your waist.

4) Lift your feet: keep your feet on the ground, tilt your toes upward as much as possible, put your feet flat, then raise your heels as much as possible, put your feet flat again, and then repeat this action; Turn your ankle: touch the ground with your toes, lift your heel, then turn your ankle clockwise or counterclockwise, change direction and repeat the exercise.

5) Lift your knees: keep sitting posture, contract one thigh, lift your calves and knees, and then put them down, alternating sides. 10-20 times.

6) Shoulder patting: Turn waist and shoulder patting are combined, with the right hand patting the left shoulder to the left and the other hand patting the lumbosacral region with the back of the hand, and vice versa. Because there is Jianjing point on the shoulder, tapping this point can dredge the breath, promote qi and promote blood circulation.

3 sedentary edema should not be easily massaged: leg swelling caused by long-term walking is mainly caused by excessive secretion of lactic acid in muscles. Different from sedentary, the discomfort of muscle soreness can be relieved by hot compress and stretching muscles. For edema caused by sedentary, if you want to relieve it, you must constantly change the height of your legs and feet. It should be noted that unilateral leg swelling (especially left leg) caused by sedentary should not be massaged to prevent venous thrombosis from falling off due to massage and increase the risk of illness.