Mr. Lin, 65 years old this year, an engineer. After retiring, he felt that he had residual heat and was rehired by a large factory. He often appeared on the front line of the construction site. However, just after the Spring Festival, Mr. Lin almost lost his legs in an accident.

He recalled that when he returned to work after the holiday, he felt pain behind his right thigh for no reason . At that time, there was no abnormality in his calf. He made a simple inquiry in the infirmary equipped with the construction site and advised him to seek medical treatment in time.

Accompanied by their lover, they went to a nearby hospital and registered for treatment, but during this period, the pain in the thigh has gradually shifted to the entire calf, and the calf also appeared numb and cold, and there were signs of gradual loss of consciousness . Mr. Lin's lover was very anxious when he saw his gradually blackened calf, and went to the special needs clinic. After the face-to-face consultation, according to his condition: the right leg was weak and had no beating blood vessels. He could lift his leg but could not cope with the resistance.

The doctor suspected a thrombus and suggested urgent imaging diagnosis. In the end, as the doctor expected, his CT showed that the lower extremity artery was blocked by a thrombus. The doctor suggested lower extremity arteriotomy and thrombectomy , which was successful.

The doctor said that if he did not seek medical treatment in time, he may face amputation

Although Mr. Lin also felt that he was very lucky, he was very puzzled. After some explanations by the doctor about leg diseases, he realized that it was not accidental that he thought "no reason". In his recollection, he had been running the construction site all the year round, and the varicose veins in the calf had been for decades, and with the increase of age Arthritis and rheumatism are also commonplace, and he never takes the occasional edema and numbness of his legs seriously.

I believe that there are many patients like Mr. Lin in life, and usually don't pay much attention to leg diseases, but there is a saying that "the prophet of people's sick legs", so in this issue, we will take you to re-understand our "transportation" "--leg.

1. Legs are the "second heart" of human beings

In the long river of human natural evolution, from crawling to walking upright is a key step in human history.

If the human body is described as a perpetual motion machine, the gastrocnemius muscles of the legs are the motors that provide infinite power to the machine. We all know that the heart is the most important organ in the body's circulatory system, which provides power for the flow of blood throughout the body.

The heart transports blood to various organs of the body through arteries, and the veins that accompany the arteries collect and return blood into the heart to form blood circulation to maintain the normal activities of life.

For arteries, since it is sent from the heart, the heart's driving force is critical, while for veins, its return mainly depends on the contraction force of the gastrocnemius muscle group of the calf.

As we walk, the gastrocnemius muscle group in the calf stretches and contracts repeatedly, rapidly diverting blood from the heart into the arteries to the veins and back to the heart.

Moreover, the gastrocnemius muscle group has a lot in common with the heart. For example, both are surrounded by reticular pulses, and the amount of blood pumped by each contraction at rest is almost equal, so many medical researchers often use the legs Call it the "second heart".

As early as the 20th century, researchers found that most patients with chronic heart failure would be accompanied by metabolic abnormalities and bone disease problems, especially the gastrocnemius muscle group of most patients had changed to varying degrees.

A study on the relationship between the two published in "Nature" at the end of last month mentioned, " In a follow-up study of more than 400,000 adults with an average age of 56 years old, it was found that long-term exercise habits ( That is, maintaining a fast-paced calf contraction and relaxation frequency) can improve blood circulation function and reduce the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. "These feet show the close relationship between the legs and the heart, and taking good care of the legs is crucial to the health of the whole body.

Our daily exercise and walking are inseparable from our legs, which carry almost all the weight of our body; at the same time, half of the nerves and blood vessels of the human body are distributed in the legs, especially the three yang meridians and Dozens of important acupuncture points such as the Yin meridian. Therefore, once there is an abnormality in the legs, it may be related to systemic diseases.

The doctor reminds: there are 3 kinds of abnormalities on the legs, be alert to the attack of the disease

The first: leg edema

In life, many people have experienced calf edema, but basically they think that it is caused by living habits such as walking too much the day before, standing for too long, or eating too salty recently. Few people imagine the disease.

Indeed, there are many reasons for leg edema. For example , too much salt intake in the diet can cause the osmotic pressure imbalance in the human body , or long-term vegetarian intake of animal protein may cause edema in the lower leg ; and with age , the tolerance of various organs and tissues of the body declines, and certain factors (such as standing for too long) may also occur in calf edema; it also includes excessive exercise .

However, calf edema caused by these common causes generally lasts for about one to two days, and will subside on its own after reasonable rest or improved diet.

If your calf edema persists for a long time, you need to be vigilant. This is likely to be a signal from some diseases. At this time, you must go to the hospital in time.

For example, nephrogenic edema. Kidney is an important metabolic organ of the human body, which is responsible for the filtration and reabsorption functions of the human body. Once there is a problem with the kidney, on the one hand, it will directly affect the filtration function of the glomerulus, resulting in water and sodium retention; on the other hand, patients will have urinary protein problems. , as the loss of protein in the blood will cause the colloid osmotic pressure to decrease, allowing more water to penetrate into the tissue, causing edema.

There are also other edema caused by metabolic basic diseases , such as abnormal thyroid function, which causes abnormal metabolic elements in the body, which in turn causes electrolyte imbalance in the body, which induces edema.

The second is systemic organ diseases induced by lower extremity vascular diseases, such as heart failure and pulmonary embolism. The pipes through which blood flows are all over the body, but with the aging of the body or other diseases, the blood flow will slow down, and it is easy to form the accumulation of impurities in the blood vessels, resulting in varicose veins, arteriosclerosis, thrombosis and other lower extremity vascular diseases. These diseases can cause leg edema.

When the blood flow in the legs is slow and sometimes mixed with some small coagulation plaques, it may cause embolism in the corresponding parts through the lungs and heart, and induce serious diseases such as heart failure and pulmonary embolism. It is easy to miss the best treatment period if it is not found in time. On the contrary, if there is a problem with the organs through which these blood flows, it will also induce the appearance of leg edema.

The second type: numbness and cold in the legs

Some middle-aged and elderly people usually feel numbness in their legs and feet. Most of them are transient paralysis symptoms caused by poor standing posture compressing the tibiofibular nerve. However, if the numbness often occurs for more than 1 minute, or the legs are symmetrical Be vigilant.

The appearance of numbness symptoms is mostly related to nerves. On the one hand, some diseases such as peripheral arterial disease of the lower extremity, joint inflammation, diabetes, etc. will produce symptoms of leg numbness , and this numbness is very different from transient leg numbness. For example, the peripheral neuropathy caused by diabetes as the course of the disease progresses, the numbness caused by it can be distributed in the back of the big and calf, and it is generally a tingling sensation of electric shock and radiation. In such cases, seek medical attention in time.

On the other hand, if deep vein thrombosis occurs in the blood vessels of the lower extremities , the nerve cells in the legs cannot be nourished by sufficient oxygen and nutrients from the blood, or when they are compressed by the blood vessels, lesions will occur, and symptoms of numbness will occur. The numbness lasts for a long time; at the same time, because deep vein thrombosis can easily induce acute cardiovascular disease, if the leg often feels numb for no reason, and the time exceeds 1min, you should seek medical treatment in time. In addition to causing numbness in the patient's legs, deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities will also cause the patient's legs and feet to become cold. This kind of coldness of the legs and feet is still "cool" even if the wearer is thicker , and the symptoms are difficult to relieve. To get attention.

In addition to leg vascular disease, cold legs may also be related to nerve conduction disorders and metabolic dysfunction. For example, when the human body has nerve root canal stenosis, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, etc., the nerve will be squeezed, causing it to react abnormally, making the body appear cold in the legs ; and some metabolic diseases will reduce the body's metabolic rate. Seriously hinder the production of body heat, so the temperature of the legs will not go up.

Type 3: Pain in the legs and affect gait

With the growth of age, the blood vessels of the human body gradually begin to age after entering the middle-aged and elderly stage. In addition to the problem of vascular blockage in the lower extremities, their elasticity will also become worse. With the continuous narrowing of the blood vessel lumen, blood The viscosity of the leg becomes higher, and the oxygen consumption of the leg muscles becomes greater during walking, which will cause chronic pain in the leg due to ischemia. However, this type of leg pain does not change periodically and can be effectively relieved after rest.

If the leg pain persists intermittently and lasts for a long time and cannot be relieved by rest, then you should be vigilant , because the common symptoms of lumbar diseases such as lumbar disc herniation, spinal stenosis, spinal cyst are leg pain, such as treatment If it is not timely and serious, it can lead to necrosis of lower extremity tissue. At the same time, in addition to leg pain, many middle-aged and elderly people also feel that walking is particularly difficult, feel powerless, and have abnormal gait. At this time, they should be alert to the possibility of central nervous system diseases, such as weakness and numbness in half of the limbs. Signs of cerebral infarction, you should seek medical attention immediately.