It can happen to everyone, especially in the evening if you’ve been on your feet all day, or in the summer, thanks to the heat. Sometimes, however, it can be a sign of heart, liver and thyroid disorders
Why do ankles swell?
The swelling, or more correctly
edema
, due to the accumulation of fluid in the interstitial space between cells. It is a vague symptom which can bring together diseases from different areas – said Lorenzo Dagna, head of the Immunology, Rheumatology, Allergology and Rare Diseases Unit of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan -. If there is no local pain, the swelling typically derives from an extravasation of liquids from the vascular system, which causes them, by force of gravity, to accumulate in the ankles and feet. This occurs especially in the case of
venous insufficiency
because the veins of the lower limbs cannot effectively carry blood back to the heart.
More serious heart problems
Dagna continues: Even more serious heart problems, like him
decompensation
, determine the accumulation of liquids in the ankles because the heart loses its ability to pump blood adequately, which thus tends to stagnate downwards. The same is true for some medications, especially calcium channel blockers. These antihypertensive drugs they have a vasodilatory effect both on the arteries and on the veins so it can happen that liquid accumulates inside the venous system which, when it escapes, causes swelling. The swollen ankles they can to be indicator light even one rheumatological diseaseusually an arthritis, or a traumatypically a sprained ankle, as well as liver, thyroid, or kidney disease.
How to understand what caused the swelling?
When swelling related to circulation due to venous or heart problems is defined dependent edemabecause it affects the lower parts of the body. be the person with this ailment lift the limbs, the edema tends to progressively decrease because there is better drainage towards the heart. The fact that there may be a change in swelling depending on the location therefore argues in favor of one vascular cause. Furthermore, in these cases the pain in the ankle is modest or absent and the swelling is typically bilateral. Otherwise if a swollen, red, hot and painful ankle to the support, it is more probable that at the origin there is a local inflammatory process, linked for example to arthritis. In these cases, the onset of the disorder is often sudden and there is a typical morning joint stiffness. Among the causes of swelling in one leg, there is also there
venous thrombosis
which should be suspected, for example, in cases where a person, with known problems of slow venous flow, is returning from a long flight or from a surgical operation which involved prolonged immobilisation.
What to do?
If the swelling in the ankles is temporary, there is no need to worry, but if it tends to get worse or appears suddenly, it is better to have a medical check-up. To trace the fundamental origin, an accurate general overview that takes into account the patient’s history, if one or both ankles swells, the mode of onset and other possible symptoms.
Sometimes the reason depends on the liver or the thyroid
Ankle swelling can also be a sign of disorders involving an alteration of blood composition. Normally we retain water inside the blood vessels, not dispersing it in the surrounding tissues, thanks to the proteins present in the blood that have this ability – explains Dagna -. If a difficulty in producing plasma proteins occurs, for example due to a liver disease or inadequate nutrition (foods low in protein, lack of vitamins necessary for protein synthesis), we risk not being able to retain liquids inside the vessels which thus settle in the most sloping parts of the body (legs, feet). Ankle swelling can also occur if the thyroid does not work well or if you have kidney disease because the kidney eliminates liquids and salts less efficiently. In these cases, other manifestations are usually present to help guide the diagnosis.
March 20, 2023 (change March 20, 2023 | 09:37)
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