“As a vascular surgeon who specializes in venous disease, I try never to stand or sit in one place for too long,” Dr. Tikva Jacobs at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital told HuffPost.
She explained that the veins in our legs must work against gravity to return blood up to our heart.
“They have valves inside of them to prevent gravity from pulling the blood back down to our feet, but over time those valves can take longer to close, allowing some blood to go back down to our feet and lower legs,” Jacobs noted. “This extra volume of blood can cause heaviness, fatigue and swelling.”
To avoid that discomfort and keep our circulation running smoothly, make regular walking or toe-tapping part of your day. This helps activate an important process called the “calf muscle pump.”
“With every step we take we are contracting our calf muscles, and that contraction works like a pump to help push the blood back up to our hearts,” Jacobs explained. “I often tell my patients that if they are cooking in the kitchen, they should walk around or march in place to activate the calf muscle pump and my patients who sit at a desk for hours and hours should set an alarm to get up every hour and walk around.”
They don’t forget about compression stockings, especially before a flight.
6 Things To Support Vascular Health
