If you’ve never had them before, leg swelling can make you think you're putting on weight because your pants, stockings and socks seem to be fitting tighter than usual.
If you’ve had swollen legs for a long time, you may avoid some activities, even walking, because of discomfort, or you might not like to wear anything that shows your legs.
In any case, you have edema, or fluid buildup, in your legs. Swollen legs can have a variety of causes, including damaged lymph nodes (lymphedema), some medications, eating too many salty foods, pregnancy, damaged veins in your legs, or kidney damage.
How to Reduce and Prevent Swollen Legs
You should always talk to your doctor if you notice your legs swelling. They may recommend one or more of the following things that you can do to help prevent leg swelling and/or reduce its symptoms
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Activity - Keeping active, especially with the muscles in the area of your body affected by the edema, can help move the excess fluids.
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Elevate Your Legs - You can put gravity to work by elevating your legs above the level of your heart to help drain the fluid.
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Wear Compression Leggings - Compression wear, like Active Slim Compression Leggings, helps reduce swollen legs in many ways. They help to improve circulation and remove the existing fluid buildup while helping to prevent more fluids from entering the affected areas.
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Reduce Your Salt Consumption - When you eat too much salt, your body produces more fluids to counteract its effect. While some sources of salt in your diet are obvious, like if you can’t imagine dinner without a salt shaker in front of you, others are not. Most of us don’t realize how much salt we get from things like processed foods (check the nutrition label on your next can of soup), and even ice cream.
If you’d like to find out more about lymphedema, check out our article “The Benefits of Compression Leggings for Lymphedema”.