Your Feet and Heart Disease — The Foot & Ankle Center Of Maryland (2024)

FAQs

What are the symptoms of heart problems in the feet? ›

Pain, achiness, fatigue, burning, or discomfort in the muscles of your feet, calves, or thighs. Symptoms that often appear during walking or exercise, and go away after several minutes of rest. Numbness in your legs or feet when you are at rest. Your legs may also feel cool to the touch, and the skin may look pale.

Swelling in the legs and feet (peripheral edema) can result from weak heart function. Congestive heart failure allows fluid to accumulate in the lower limbs. Nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy) from diabetes, a major risk factor for heart disease, is a common cause of foot pain and numbness.

Swollen Feet or Ankles

The blood moves into them, but your heart isn't beating strongly enough to push the blood back through your veins. Some people may feel fine when they get up in the morning. But by the end of the day, their lower legs, ankles and feet become swollen.

Swelling: When heart failure happens, it can make fluid build-up in the body, causing feet and ankles to swell. This can also happen in other body parts, leading to rapid weight gain. Numbness and Pain: When these symptoms occur in the feet it can be an indication of peripheral artery disease.

Some indications of poor circulation are achy legs and feet, sometimes even when resting, cold and clammy feet, tingling, and the feeling of pins and needles in the lower legs and feet, as well as numbness and painful cramping which are all symptoms someone with a circulation problem may experience.

The Ball of the Foot: This area corresponds to the heart and chest. One of the best heart health tips doesn't necessarily revolve around diet or exercise—it's about the ball of your left foot. This cushioned area is intrinsically linked to the heart and chest.

Blood often backs up and causes fluid to build up in the lungs and in the legs. The fluid buildup can cause shortness of breath and swelling of the legs and feet. Poor blood flow may cause the skin to appear blue or gray.

With PAD, you may develop leg cramps, especially when you walk or exercise. Other symptoms include changes to the appearance of your leg skin—it could look shiny, waxy, or blue in color. You may lose your leg hair, or it may grow much more slowly. Your feet may also be cool or cold to the touch.

This table lists the most common signs and symptoms of heart failure, explains why they occur and describes how to recognize them. ... breathlessness during activity (most commonly) or while at rest. Sometimes it comes on suddenly at night, making it very hard to breathe unless you get up and move around.

If you've been diagnosed with stage one of congestive heart failure, it is because a doctor has noticed a weakness in your heart. This news may be surprising, as stage one of CHF does not exhibit any symptoms.

Do you pee a lot with heart failure? ›

More than half of people with heart failure experience continence issues such as urgency and urge incontinence⁵.

Heart failure is when the heart has more difficulty pumping blood through the body, leading to fluid accumulation elsewhere in the body, especially in the feet and legs. A person may experience the following issues: feet suddenly looking larger or puffy.

Walking helps congestive heart failure patients in several ways: Reduces heart attack risk, including cutting the risk of having a second heart attack. Strengthens their hearts and improves lung function. Long term, aerobic activity improves your heart's ability to pump blood to your lungs and throughout your body.

Stage 4 heart failure is the most severe, and you will be showing symptoms regardless of what activity you are doing. You may feel issues like shortness of breath, nausea, light-headedness, chest pain, and swelling even when you are completely at rest.

Symptoms of Cardiac Edema

Swelling in your lower extremities. Fatigue. Feeling of suffocating or drowning. Rapid weight gain.

Your feet can tell you a lot about underlying health conditions before they show up anywhere else. From tingly feelings and numbness, to joint aches or ulcers, your feet will show you symptoms that you can attend to before they become a more serious problem.

Here are some of the ways heart conditions can cause leg pain: Congestive heart failure: If your heart doesn't pump as well, you can experience significant leg swelling due to poor blood flow. Venous thromboembolism (VTE): Also known as a blood clot in your leg, VTE can be a sign of heart disease .