Foot and Ankle Swelling: What Causes It?

my ankles and feet are swollen why doc why so we're gonna give you the top 10 reasons or causes of swamping angles and this is a really common problem and debilitating yeah and it kind of depends on age too as to why 100 foot might be swollen you can't get it now you're like thank goodness flip-flop Seasons here because I can actually get my foot in my shoe don't wear flip-flops you're talking about that video about that I saw someone on an episode of ER with a swollen ankle wait 1994 called they want their medical docudrama back Halo 1994. welcome to the fax machine Clooney really yeah we I restarted watching ER again yeah I just started watching the episodes again and I tell you while I was watching I was thinking you know what I really want to be a doctor you are a duck I am a doctor it's not quite that glamorous though no I mean we're not playing basketball outside emerge we're not having romantic dinners on the rooftop no time for dinner does our hospital I have a rooftop it does so there's it's made a little bit glamorous but you know it was the medical information was pretty accurate I gotta say I feel like my life more is representative of Scrubs no I remember watching here as a medical student I was learning stuff while watching it you know in addition to reading books there you go if you've had swelling of the ankles or a swollen ankle or swollen foot please leave a comment below the number this is not an order of priority or importance or frequency this is just our list so the first one is trauma so obviously if you sprain or break your ankle or your foot you're gonna have a swollen foot and ankle because of the inflammation potentially because of the bleeding and this pool's down there and this is very common okay so Trump now if you didn't break your ankle or hurt yourself and your ankles are swollen you got to ask yourself am I pregnant oh pregnancy sure definitely pregnancy is a common cause for a lot of reasons so definitely fluid retention generally speaking is common but the pressure of the baby actually in its location pushes on a large vein or the largest vein coming back to your heart called your inferior vena cava so when you're standing there's pressure but particularly if you're lying on your right side this is why women are encouraged to lie on their left side when they're sleeping when they're pregnant to reduce some of the pressure on that vessel and plus there's just a big uh fluid load when you're pregnant 100 and then food is way high and then more seriously during pregnancy there are things called preeclampsia and eclampsia that can lead to spilling or protein your urine and fluid retention that become very very dangerous so this is an emergency you need to talk to your family doctor about this swollen ankles in pregnancy is not an emergency but one of these conditions is the cause of it that might be an emergency situation so get it checked out check it out okay number three medication so we know that medications have many many benefits as well as many many side effects commonly listed on the side of the product or even the Black Box listing for the medication so medications that cause fluid retention includes things like steroids anti-inflammatories anti-diabetic medication antidepressants it seems like all the antes yeah sorry uncles it's the auntie's time to shine however there are medications of course you can give if you do have swelling of your ankles as well so right so you have to weigh the benefit of the medication initially and sometimes you have to take one medication so that you can take another medication there you go double this is not a big Pharma promotion okay uh next one we're on number four now yeah infection okay why does infection cause if you had an infection in your foot or ankle you'd have swelling because uh inflammation is one of the Hallmark signs of infection right it's red hot swollen yeah uh so that swelling is swelling in the ankle swelling of your feet and that could be an indication that you have an infection going on that would also be associated with some pain and some redness and stuff like that as well for sure okay number five venous insufficiency so this just talks about those one-way valves in our veins that allow blood to go in One Direction and not pool but over time and for lots of other medical reasons these valves can fail and then gravity causes that blood to pool in your lower extremities which is why I'm wearing compression socks right now thanks to Dr Bev Chan who did a great video on varicose veins I was going to say check out our video on Venus insufficiency compression socks and compression socks yeah so uh kind of along those same lines the next one would be blood clots you may have heard of a DVT or a Venus thromboembolism uh there are some conditions that predispose you to or you might just have without having a predisposing condition a blood clot in your leg right blood clot occurs when the blood pools in your leg and then it clots in the veins or you could even have an arterial clot that prevents the blood flow from leaving your lower extremities and that's manifested as swelling right even if you and and sometimes blood clots can lead down the road to venous insufficiency right so aculia can cause the swelling and also long form definitely chronically yeah uh not good yeah blood clots number seven is lymphedema so this is actually a very debilitating condition and probably would warn an entire video with an expert but what it means is that our lymph it's extra fluid that is carried in these specific channels throughout our body and as these channels start to fail or are absent or are damaged with things like radiation or surgical dissection for cancer this can cause of fluid outside of its normal channels including the vessels and the lymph channels and commonly in the legs usually bilateral and this is a very debilitating condition Funky Cold Medina lymphedema yep all right next one is heart failure congestive heart failure or chiffa as I like to call it no one calls it that chiffon now they will and Joseph heart failure so your heart is a pump and its job is to circulate the blood around your body right in One Direction well we're not talking about music right yeah hairstyles One Direction so uh your heart's pumping and if your pump is failing then you're not going to be able to pump that blood away from the extremities back into the central sort of circulation and it's going to pool and swell and so you know one of the key things if you're having uh swelling of the ankle secondary to congestive heart failure it's probably going to be bilateral right A lot of these conditions that we're mentioning you can tell if it's one side or both sides this heart failure is one of them where you've got it in both sides traumas usually one side most things are usually one side that we've been talking about actually just about everything except for the medications and the venous insufficiency but definitely heart failure is one of those things where you'll have swelling in the ankles in both sides right and our heart has two sides right in the left side so usually if you have left-sided heart failure that causes fluid to back up in your lungs but if it continues to back up to the right side that's when you end up with that fluid pooling in your extremities I thought you're gonna say if you have in the left side got a left leg right side right no it doesn't work like that way it works one heart okay number nine is another failure it's kidney failure so our kidneys are responsible for managing our fluid volumes and our electrolytes and as our kidneys start to fail which is a very common problem primarily related to diabetes and high blood pressure the amount of fluid that ends up again outside of your vessels and the extra fluid that we retain ends up in our legs so this can be an early sign of kidney failure can be a sign that your blood pressure is a problem or a sign that maybe something is serious as even requiring dialysis to deal with this okay it really brings us to number 10. on the theme of failure yes liver failure liver failure liver really plays an important role in the management of proteins in your blood proteins in your blood are what help to balance that osmotic pressure if you remember from high school you have a fluid flow related to the solute concentration so water will flow from an area of high concentration of water or low concentration of solute into the low concentration of water or high concentration of solute so that's osmotic pressure that's that's created and you need the proteins in your blood to help maintain that osmotic pressure otherwise you just sort of leak your fluids out and one of the main ones is albumin so in if you have fluoride liver failure your body cannot make make as much albumin and also in malnutrition we were talking about this before people that are malnourished and actually have protein deficiency can have low levels of albumin it's actually a good measure of your General Health and that reduces your ability to keep fluid inside of your vessel so these people often will have low blood pressure as well see what we did there we threw malnutrition in with liver failure because we wanted to stay at 10 because we only have 10 fingers that's right so now you know so there are many many causes of swelling in your feet and ankles so first off identify how significant it is how long it's been around how serious it is and if you're concerned you probably should talk to your doctor ah we always say that or your other Healthcare talk to your health care professional about the swelling in your ankles and that you can go in there now with an idea of what might be causing it try and figure out if it's one side or both sides and that might help you get the diagnosis but definitely go talk to a healthcare professional if you're experiencing this condition and we'll do a follow-up video on treatment and if you have this if this condition leave a comment let us know if you're battling the swelling in your legs and if you like this video please like it subscribe to our Channel and remember you are in charge of your own health we'll see you next time

Channel: Talking With Docs

Views: 1,586,733

Keywords: swollen feet, swollen ankles, swollen legs, how to treat swollen feet, how to reduce swollen feet, swollen foot, swollen legs and feet, swollen top of foot, foot swelling, home remedies for swollen feet, top of foot swollen and painful, swollen ankle, painful swollen legs, swollen feet remedies, swollen feet and ankles, foot pain, natural remedies for swollen feet, swollen, treat swollen feet, what to do for swollen feet, causes of swollen feet

Id: frjWnpLgaLs

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2023