Edema problem is not getting better? 6 Bad habits should not be ignored

By Zhong Bifang

Edema is often caused by some habits that you think are insignificant. If you can eliminate these bad habits first, you may be able to get rid of most of the edema problems.

I believe that many people are worried that water retention in the body will cause swelling of the face and limbs. In fact, some edema phenomena are closely related to the most common little habits in daily life.

Bad Habit 1: Eating too salty or too sweet

Diet is one of the main causes of edema. Greasy and heavy-tasting food will cause salt to be retained in the body. Yang Shangfeng, attending physician of the Nephrology Department of Zhenxing Hospital, pointed out that edema occurs mainly because the salt intake exceeds the burden on the kidneys. Therefore, salt intake should be appropriately limited in daily diet.

Many people like to pursue strong flavors, such as spicy hot pot, fried chicken, barbecue, etc., but these will cause a serious imbalance of sodium and potassium ions in the body, causing thirst, and the body must replenish more water to balance it. This will also cause sodium ions to store water in the body, thus causing edema.

It's not just heavy flavors. Many processed foods on the market and even exquisite desserts and breads actually contain a lot of sodium. In order to reduce the burden on the body, the daily sodium intake of adults should not exceed 5 grams. However, because it is difficult to measure when eating out, it is recommended to try to choose lighter foods with less salt and fat when eating. At the same time, you should also pay attention to the food labels of general packaged foods to achieve the goal of reducing salt in daily life.

Bad Habit 2: Little or no exercise

Swollen feet are partly caused by poor blood and lymph circulation in the lower limbs. If you don't have a habit of exercising, or exercise very little, not only will your cardiopulmonary function deteriorate, but the contraction of the lower limb muscles to help blood and lymph return will also be reduced, thus causing edema. Therefore, developing an exercise habit is indeed helpful in eliminating and preventing local edema.

To keep the venous return capacity of the feet good, in addition to maintaining a daily exercise habit, it is necessary to increase breathing and heart rate from time to time. For example, climbing stairs, brisk walking, jogging, riding a bicycle, etc. can all accelerate the discharge of excess water and waste in the body through sweating, thereby promoting metabolism. However, too intense exercise may cause a drop in blood pressure and may lead to edema. Therefore, exercise must be done gradually and within one's ability.

Bad habit 3: Love wearing high heels and crossing your legs

When you are active in high heels, your feet are under strain for a long time, which increases blood supply and causes more blood to remain in the lower limbs. If you also wear tight shoes, it is more likely that water will accumulate on the dorsum of the foot and cause edema.

In addition, we should also pay attention to the seemingly normal habit of crossing our legs. If one foot is crossed over the other foot for a long time, it will cause compression of the venous return of the lower limbs, making the calves more prone to edema.

Bad habit 4: Taking diet pills from unknown sources

Medication for high blood pressure, steroid drugs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and hormone supplements may all cause edema as a side effect. Generally, edema will improve once the medication is stopped or replaced with other medications of the same type. If the condition requires long-term use, it can be combined with dietary salt restriction and moderate exercise to reduce edema.

What is more worrying is that many women who want to lose weight will use weight-loss drugs of unknown origin, such as the cocktail therapy that was quite popular a while ago. Many of these weight-loss drugs are mixed with diuretics. Although diuretics can eliminate excess water from the body and make the weight appear much lower, they actually excrete important elements such as electrolytes, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, etc. from the body, making the body weak; what is more serious is that long-term use can also cause damage to the kidneys. Once there is a problem with the kidneys, water cannot be discharged smoothly, and the edema symptoms cannot be eliminated, but will become more serious.

Bad Habit 5: Drinking Water at the Wrong Time

Yang Shangfeng said that many women like to drink a glass of warm water before going to bed, but this will cause swollen face and eyelids when they wake up the next day. This is because when the body is not dehydrated, it is impossible to urinate during sleep, and the body's physiological mechanism automatically retains water. These excess water easily run into the tissue fluid during sleep, so it will cause edema when you wake up the next day. However, generally speaking, when the body functions normally, the kidneys will naturally excrete excess water after getting up in the morning, and usually will not cause persistent edema.

In addition, don't avoid drinking water for fear of edema. The desire to drink water usually comes from insufficient water in the body. Not drinking water will cause a burden instead. If the kidney function is normal, excess water in the body will be eliminated within one or two hours, so there is no harm in drinking water. The best way to drink water is to drink small amounts frequently. Don't drink too much water at one time to avoid burdening your body.

Bad habit 6: Staying up late and having irregular work and rest schedules

The edema caused by staying up late is caused by multiple factors. Yang Shangfeng explained that, generally speaking, an adult's activities for a day will cause about 1 kilogram of water to accumulate in the lower limb tissues. If there is no proper rest at night to allow the blood to return to normal, it is equivalent to blocking the opportunity for self-repair. Over time, it will easily cause edema.

On the other hand, staying up late requires you to be energetic, and the result of constantly stimulating the sympathetic nerves will force the kidneys to recycle water and sodium, causing edema. Therefore, staying up late will not only cause edema due to lack of rest, but also due to sympathetic nerve disorders.

For the full content, please see [Changchun Monthly Issue 376]