Therapy for Peripheral Artery Disease

Dealing with peripheral artery disease can be challenging, but there are many conventional and unconventional methods out there to help with overcoming this disease. By using a number of treatments, the disease can be halted, reversed, or completely cured. PAD is a deadly disease which affects millions of people around the world. The symptoms are discreet and are easily passed off as just another part of aging. However, anybody with the symptoms of PAD (which include cramping and pain of the legs, as well as body parts falling asleep for long amounts of time) should go see a doctor and get tested. If you don’t get tested and don’t take measures to inhibit the disease, it can lead to heart attack, stroke, amputation, or death.

Many people with PAD are smokers, as smoking can usually be the difference between having the disease or not. Smoking affects blood lining vessels, so quitting and therefore removing the constant damage to that lining is the best treatments you can do. If you are a smoker and you know you have this disease, it is imperative to quit, as if the blood lining keeps getting damaged and the disease becomes more advanced, stroke and/or a heart attack becomes inevitable.

Besides quitting smoking, there are a number of other things that can be done. Exercise is another very natural way to offset the disease (not to mention dozens of others as well). By exercising, alternative small blood vessels are opened which allow inhibited blood flow to be redirected through, therefore relieving some of the negative effects of PAD. Medication with aspirin, clopidogrel, and statins can also slow the progression of the disease.

If the disease is very advanced, angioplasty may become necessary. Angioplasty is the mechanical widening of blood vessels, for the purpose of letting more blood through. However, it is not a route to be taken lightly, as it does require surgery and with all surgery there is a chance something could go wrong. If the disease does get to this stage, it is best to take any option that is possible, because when the disease gets advanced enough, gangrene (the decay of tissue due to lack of blood flow) can set in, in which case something might need to be amputated.

Some people decide not to take any surgical or medical treatment, and just stick with exercising. If you stick to a regulated plan, exercise alone can be enough to widen the blood vessels and repair damage. Eating healthier also hopes, as cholesterol sticking to blood vessels impedes blood flow and contributes to the progression of PAD. But with the progression of modern science, it would be extremely unwise not to go with a medical treatment of any kind, as the risks are higher without it than with it.