An Explanation of Intermittent Claudication
Pain in the Legs When Walking Could Indicate Poor Blood Circulation
Oct 11, 2009
Intermittent claudication is a severe cramping pain of the lower limbs that comes on when walking .
The condition is well recognised to affect many men as they approach their mid sixties. The pain is typically relieved when the person stops walking to rest - and then comes on again when he resumes walking.
The term is derived from the Latin word claudicare (meaning 'to limp') - with the description 'intermittent' qualifying the pain as one that, in contrast to a continuous pain, is relieved by rest.
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Intermittent claudication is one of the cardinal symptoms of peripheral vascular disease (PVD) which is due to the same basic cause (inadequate supply of oxygen and nutrients to muscles resulting from narrowing of the arteries) as the pain of Angina . Men with peripheral vascular disease typically have a two to three times greater death rate from heart attacks or strokes compared to healthy people of the same age. If a man also has Diabetes, or High Blood Pressure this risk is increased.
This increased risk of death is not unexpected since, if the arteries supplying the muscles of the legs are narrowed, it stands to reason that such narrowing (the result of atherosclerosis) is likely to be present in other parts of the body, such as the coronary arteries (supplying the heart muscle) and the carotid arteries (supplying the brain).
Claudication develops during walking because when a man is exercising, the leg muscles are working harder and so require more oxygen than when they are at rest. Being starved of blood-borne oxygen, the muscles suffer pain - Nature' s way of telling the man to stop walking so that the requirements of the leg muscles for blood becomes less.
Preventing Vascular Disease
Like most forms of vascular disease, peripheral vascular disease can be prevented. A man can prevent himself from developing PVD by not smoking, not being overweight, not having high cholesterol and by regularly exercising.
Should you experience the symptoms of claudication, you should consult your doctor - who can help you prevent yourself developing more serious circulation problems. The first steps, obviously, will be to quit smoking, get your weight down and reduce your cholesterol. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure (which can aggravate the problem), measures to control these can be started.
Improving Collateral Circulation
The next step is to gradually increase your exercise - which helps the legs to develop a collateral (alternate) circulation that can help to supply the leg muscles with extra blood. Just as when the freeway is blocked, traffic can reach its destination by taking side roads, so too can the blood be encouraged to take alternate routes (collateral arteries) to reach the muscles if the main route (the major arteries of the legs) are blocked.
Those who do not respond adequately to these conservative measures may benefit from being prescribed certain medications which can improve blood flow in the legs - or even undergo surgery, which can replace severely narrowed arteries and restore blood flow to the affected muscles.
PVD linked to Coronary Artery Disease
Remember: pain in the legs that comes on when walking is not just a natural sign of getting older. It could well indicate PVD - atherosclerosis or "hardening of the arteries" in the legs - which could be a salutory message that the arteries in other vital organs are also getting affected.
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