Emsite’s Preventative Screening and PAD
What is PAD?
PAD is a Peripheral Artery Disease caused by a narrowing or blockage of the blood vessels (arteries) that carry blood from the heart to the rest of your body. PAD is caused mainly by blockages that reduce blood flow to your legs or even complete loss of blood circulation, which can cause body tissues to die. When tissues die, gangrene can lead to amputation of the affected body parts if it goes untreated.
What are the symptoms of PAD?
The most common symptoms of PAD are:
- Painful cramping in one or both of your hips, thighs, or calf muscles after certain activities such as walking or climbing stairs. The cramping in these areas is also called claudication
- Leg numbness or weakness
- Coldness in your lower leg or foot, especially when compared with the other side of your body
- Sores on your toes, feet, or legs that won’t heal
- A change in the color of your legs
- Hair loss or slower hair growth on your feet and legs
- Slower growth of your toenails
- Shiny skin on your legs
- No pulse or a weak pulse in your legs or feet
Unfortunately, a person does not have symptoms until the artery has narrowed by 60% or more.
Risk factors for PAD
You can’t do anything about some of the factors that increase your risk of PAD. A person’s age and family history of the disease are not within your control, but there are many risk factors that a person can control and change before the disease develops.
- Cigarette smoking is the primary risk factor for PAD and the most preventable.
- Diabetes significantly increases your risk due to high blood sugar that promotes inflammation and leads to blood vessel abnormalities.
- High blood pressure causes damage to artery walls.
- High cholesterol is a considerable risk factor. Even after cholesterol builds up, you can slow down the accumulation or stop the condition worsening.
- Overweight and obesity lead to high blood pressure and diabetes.
- A sedentary lifestyle can lead to PAD. Staying active and engaging in routine exercise can help maintain a healthy weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and help prevent diabetes.
Emsite’s Preventive Health Screenings
Are you at risk for PAD? Early detection using preventative screenings offered by Emsite will allow you to make lifestyle changes to prevent or slow down any early detections of PAD. Emsite Health offers these screenings in-house, which is more convenient for the patients. This test can provide you with the peace of mind that if there are any signs of early PAD, you have time to make those critical lifestyle changes necessary. Please contact Emsite to set up an appointment if you feel PAD is a risk for you or your loved one.