One of the curious things that doctors have discovered in recent years is that a person’s feet can give clues as to how healthy his or her heart is.
It is not for nothing that the body is a great machine where each part is interrelated with the others. The best known saying is “the eyes are the reflection of the soul”.
But in fact, clear signs have been identified that show that the feet can very well reflect what is going on in the heart.
We are going to talk about three of these signs, which are the most frequent and known by specialists.
Beware of swollen feet
Swelling in the feet is a clear sign of circulation problems or heart failure. This swelling occurs because the blood that reaches the lower extremities does not return to the heart quickly and efficiently enough.
Some causes of this may be the formation of a clot that reduces the passage of blood in the veins. These types of problems are very dangerous, as they indicate an increased risk of suffering at some point a pulmonary edema, a heart attack or a stroke.
Do your feet look pale?
When the skin of the feet acquires a pale or cyanotic (blue) tone, we may be in the presence of a problem called arteriosclerosis, in which the arteries of the lower extremities harden due to the accumulation of cholesterol and fatty plaques.
This leads to a loss in the circulatory system’s ability to deliver blood and oxygen to the feet, so the skin takes on a dull tone. In turn, this symptom indicates that the person has a higher risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack, as the heart will have to make a greater effort to pump blood throughout the body.
Do your feet feel very cold on a regular basis?
Having frequent cold sensations in the feet is another sign that there are problems in the functioning of the heart.
Warm blood should flow normally to the feet, which are the farthest area from the heart. But if there is a problem with this organ, the blood will not arrive quickly and therefore there will be a loss of temperature that will make us feel discomfort.
Cold feet is a manifestation that accompanies problems such as heart failure or arteriosclerosis, so you should seek medical evaluation if it happens too often.
In conclusion, the heart is a very resistant organ and perhaps the strongest muscle in the body. In an adult, it beats about 75 times per minute and can reach 150 to 180 beats during sports or strenuous physical activity.
This means that in one year the heart muscle can beat more than 36.7 million times. For this reason, you should be alert to any signs that indicate that your heart health is affected, such as those that your feet may give you in this case.
Article prepared by Clínica San Román
01-12-2020
