What is Chronic Venous Insufficiency?

A few weeks back it was revealed that President Trump is dealing with a condition in his legs known as Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI).

When I learned about what it is, I wasn’t surprised that it is an ailment the President is dealing with.

Chronic Venous Insufficiency is a condition that arises from damaged veins in your legs.

This damage prevents adequate blood flow from your legs back to your heart.

As a result, blood can pool in your legs, causing high blood pressure in those veins.

Initially, symptoms can be mild, such as bruising on the legs caused by burst capillaries, achy legs, pins and needles sensation in your legs, cramping, swelling, itchy and flaky skin, varicose veins, and swelling in the lower part of the legs.

Eventually, these symptoms can become more severe.  The burst capillaries can eventually cause inflammation, tissue damage, and even ulcers.

The ulcers can then lead to infection.

Causes of Chronic Venous Insufficiency

Causes of CVI range from congenital issues to such issues as Deep Vein Thrombosis (a blood clot in the leg that leaves scar tissue) and issues such as changes to your leg veins that prevent them from working well.

Deep vein thrombosis is the most common cause.

Treatment for CVI

Treatment for CVI typically involves lifestyle changes, but also may involve compression therapy, medication and possibly surgery.

The two most important lifestyle changes are… you guessed it… exercise and weight loss.

Chronic Veinous Insufficiency is just another adverse condition that is associated with obesity.

Extra weight can put too much pressure on the veins in the lower part of the leg (calf muscle), and this can then lead to the aforementioned burst capillaries.

Exercise helps with the blood flow.

In particular, exercise that targets the calf muscle, known as the “2nd heart” causes that muscle to squeeze and help to return blood back to the heart.

Walking is one exercise you can do at any time to stimulate the calf muscle.

Final thoughts

Again, I was not surprised to read about President Trump’s diagnosis with CVI.

He has carried too much weight for years and probably hasn’t seen the inside of a gym in decades.

The best way to avoid CVI is to maintain a healthy weight and exercise regularly.

You don’t even need to go to a gym to do that!