you know recently um i was sitting down on a table and i was looking over and i noticed someone um
someone's right ankle was completely swollen okay the foot was swollen the lower leg was swollen but
the left foot wasn't swollen and i was very very tempted to go up to her and start asking questions
because typically what happens when your right ankle or foot is swollen you have edema
that's usually a liver problem cirrhosis of the liver and i looked down and to see if there was
a protruded belly like called ascites and there wasn't that it was it was definitely a belly but
it wasn't protruded now that's not the only way to diagnose the liver but it was just one indication
if there's advanced liver problems but sometimes i get into trouble because i tend to want to
evaluate the person and figure things out when they might not want to be evaluated but based
on where someone is holding fluid edema wise you can tell a lot about what's going on in the body
so if the right ankle and foot is more swollen think liver if the left foot and ankle is swollen
think more heart if both of the ankles and feet are swollen think more of a blood sugar situation
like diabetes now there's many other reasons why you might have edema it could be you have
something called chronic venous insufficiency or you have lymphedema or you have a kidney problem
or even you have an advanced lung problem but the most common reasons for edema in your ankles
is going to be usually in the area of blood sugar issues like diabetes or pre-diabetes
or you're just low in potassium and you're very high in sodium i remember in practice
i would just simply have people either juice some greens or take some potassium and all
this fluid would just come right out the next day so potassium is very very important and it just
tells you that they're just not consuming enough greens they're just doing heavy salt and i don't
actually recommend cutting down your salt i just recommend increasing your potassium by consuming
more greens like a really large salad every single day would be great now let's talk about diabetes
but what happens when you're diabetic is you get destruction of your vascular system especially in
the capillaries so all the blood that comes through your arteries it comes down to the
capillaries it has to then go through this little exchange process then you have the lymphatic
system which handles the excess fluid and comes back around and if your circulation is damaged
from high levels of sugar you're not going to get this exchange it's going to back up into fluids
and you're going to just hold a lot of fluids in your feet and your ankles and this is actually
a pretty big problem because think about what's happening to your heart it's having to work
really really hard and so when someone has edema in the ankles it gives you a good prediction
of what's going to happen down the road and so unfortunately when people go to the doctor for
edema they give them a diuretic they're treating this symptom the symptom is not the problem
it just tells you there's a problem there and just by getting rid of fluid
you never you never change the diet you never get the potassium in there you don't correct the blood
sugars and unfortunately when you suppress the symptom you're hiding the symptom and
you're lowering the awareness that the problem is still there because you're taking these diuretics
every day and you're just getting rid of the fluid and you're thinking oh yeah i'm fine so
if you're watching this right now and you have swelling in the ankles or the feet
definitely start asking questions start to investigate an underlying cause if you're on
medications definitely also find out the root of this problem and start to correct it so you don't
end up down the road with a bigger problem hey before you go if you're benefiting from any of my
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