Old persons in whose legs blood cannot easily flow back to the heart walk slowly or sluggishly, find climbing stairways herculean, experience leg cramps, numbness, tingling pains in the toes. Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) may suffer skin discolouration and try all sorts of heat creams and hot water bottles to no avail. To regain springs of youths in the legs and they may intimately end up with compression stockings to encourage blood flow upwards through the ankles and reduce the sizes of varicose veins.
They should be lucky if they have an understanding of what is going on in their legs and know that there are food supplements which may ease or eradicate their problems. Such was the fortune of David whose unexpected healing and rescue from the pangs of death was mentioned by Dr. Ray Strand in his book, What Your Doctor Does Not Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You (Please see Restore LYF:Dr. Ray Strand, The Grape Seed Doctor at www Olufemikusa.com and at https//link.medium.com/QQLhlO8wob). He lost his driving licence and job, became wheelchair bound and was given a few weeks to live by his doctors. He sent good bye messages to his friends. But good fortune brought a grape seed extract drink his way. It had helped a boy in similar conditions. David took it, his legs came aIive again, and he got not only his driver’s licence and job back…but his life as well!
Dyingles
Four major reasons are always cited as the possible causes of this challenge. The first is neurological questions with brain origins. The second is blood clots. The third is damage to or weakness of the one way non-return valves in the veins. The fourth is diseases of blood vessels such as Buerger’s disease. We can add a fifth possible cause…emotional injury in the first chakra.
How do these problems cause instalmental death in the legs? The heart pumps used and deoxygenated blood to the lungs to pick oxygen (oxygenation) from the air we inhale, Pulls back the oxygenated blood from the lungs to pump it round the body through the (red) blood circulation system and the lymph system.The lymph is the non-red components of the blood, or the real blood, which seperate from the red blood circulation to take oxygen and other nutrients through the blood capillaries, tiny blood vessels, to the 100 trillion or so cells which compose the average adult human body. When these cells have used up these nutrients, they send their waste products, including carbon dioxide, to the lymph which conveys them to the veins for the return journey to the heart. Once again, the heart will pump the used and deoxygenated blood to the lungs for renewal. When the detoxifying organs (liver, kidneys, lungs and the skin), receive their new blood stocks, they rid them of wastes and toxins and consume the nutrients.
Meanwhile, the return of venous, deoxygenated blood to the heart may be blocked in “traffic”jams by a variety of factors such as nerves problems, blood clots, valves weakness or damage and vascular (blood vessels) diseases.
Nerves
There are billions of nerve cells in the brain which monitor every process in the body and governs it through an extensive nervous system. Regions of the body with reduced nervous system contact or efficiency are often weak, diseased or withered. It is thought that subluxation of the nerves which interface with the lower limbs may be a cause of venous insufficiency in this region. A subluxation is a shifting of one or more bones in the spinal column which impacts the nerve root (s) and, so, delimits nerve energy or impulses flow from the brain to the nerve destination in tissues and organs.
One senior citizen of Nigeria who can write books and books on his nerves is former military president Ibrahim Babangida (rtd). Juliette Ukabiala, as Defence Correspondent of The Guardian newspaper, long before she took her Ph.D in Strategic Studies abroad, wrote of how the general was tormented by all sorts of pain when he was in office. His leg nerves gave him a jaunty gait when he walked. Today, he walks on two crutches, unable to bear his weight, unaided, on both feet. Juliette said Gen Babangida kept himself going on acupuncture treatment and other medications. Nigerian public affairs watchers of that time will recall that Gen Babangida (rtd) went to France to have surgery for a condition known as Radiculopathy. His military and government stature at that time brought this word into the Nigerian lexicon.
Radiculopathy is a disease in a pinched nerve root. The disease causes pain which radiates down the length of the nerve. If it occurs in the neck (cervical radiculopathy), the pain radiates from there to both arms and the chest. If the problem comes from the middle of the spine, the pain (thoratic radiculopathy), disturbs that region. In Gen Babangida’s radiculopathy, the problem came from the sciatic nerve in the lower back and shot down from the waist to one or both legs.
There is a tendency to confront these pains with common pain killers or serious steroidal drugs rather than sort them out at their roots. And, of course, this may worsen the risk of venous insufficiency in the legs and elsewhere in the body. Western medicine is only now exposing itself to eastern medicine. In the Eastern world, problems of the legs are ascribed to First Chakra emotional injuries. The chakra is a vortex or centre of energy. It is believed that the real man, who inhabits the physical body, connects with this body at seven special points, the first of which is at the base of the spine. It is symbolised by the pink or red. This may suggest that persons who suffer from leg problems may wear red or orange/pink boxers, because in energy or colour therapy, these colours are believed to energise this part of the body.
The First Chakra is all about groundedness or security on Earth. We were all born into journeys through life on Earth. If in the first seven years of earthly existence, our caregivers gave us sufficient nurture (love, food, water, clothing, good housing and a calm environment etc), we tend to trust the world and to believe we are secure in it. We are secure on Earth and become able, as we grow up, to live balanced lives. But if our circumstances were otherwise, we may become insecure, distrustful, unbalanced, fight unnecessary battles which may cause emotional injuries and emotional energy blockages from the pelvic region down to the legs, the province of the First Chakra. This is very important because the body is merely a lifeless material replication of a living essence, the spirit. Here, we are speaking of Etheric Energy Flow, the unseen “blood” circulation. From studies of chakra literature, it is easy to correlate outward events (blood clots in the legs, for example, with an orign or root in clumped chakra energy disturbances, since the physical body has no life on its own but is a mere echo of what is going on inside the inhabiting soul. On the basis of the foregoing, can it not be inferred that people challenged with venous Insufficiency need to examine their inner lives and make the necessary corrections to errors of imbalances which they may have carried over from baby and childhood days? Anyone who wishes to have a better grip of health needs to understand The Seven Chakras
Blood clot
The blood is meant to flow unhindered from the heart to all parts of the body and back to heart throughout one’s existence. But, sometimes, accidents such as injuries do occur in the blood vessels which may constitute hindrances. When an injury or a break occurs, blood cells known as Platelets clump to protect the injury or prevent blood loss outside the vessel.These clumps may break off and constitute blockages. Long distance travellers who cannot easily stretch or excercise their legs may develop obstruction to blood flow in the deep vein which runs under their knee joint folds. This clot is known as Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Some women who sit crossing one knee joint over the other suffer from DVT because of compressions of the deep vein.Blood clots breaking from a DVT may cause heart attacks and strokes, or block venous return circulation in the legs . This often causes back up of blood in the lower limbs. In addition to the symptoms stated above, the sufferer may experience tingling toe pains or numbness in the foot and legs.
Some sufferers may experience Intermittent Claudication as well. This is a condition of periodic, cramping pains in the legs and in the calves during walking or other foot exertion. It may be caused by blood clot blockages in the arteries in the legs or in the veins. Many people take these cramping pains less seriously than they should. It is possible they will take them far more seriously if they know that what is going on in their legs is not different from what had gone on in the hearts of persons who had heart attacks or in the brains of those who suffered from strokes. This means their hearts and their brains may be as endangered as their legs. Superficial venous Insufficiency or poor blood circulation in the hands and legs is a symptom that the blood circulation may be growing killer blood clots in other parts of the body.
When some challenged persons are told that smoking or obesity may be the cause(s) of their problems, they challenge these viewpoints, quite understandably because they may never have smoked a stick of cigarette all their lives. They do not appreciate the fact that they may be daily passive smokers or are exposed to other damaging smokes. The cigarette smoker is protected by the filter in the cigarette stick, but the person standing by inhales the smoke or she puffs out is unprotected. In that puff is a high load of Nicotine. This substance narrows the arteries, slowing blood circulation to the tissues and organs and inducing elevated blood pressure (hypertension). Besides, the smoke gives the passive inhaler carbon monoxide, not oxygen. Cunning as they are, snakes hate the tobacco plant and do not venture near it because they easily pick up the nicotine fragrance.
Nicotine deprives the human blood circulation of oxygen, already in low supply because of venous return insufficiency. As for obesity, it impacts more pressure than is reasonable for a foot that is already under pressure from oxygen insufficiency. And where cracks in the foot are not well and speedily attended to, this may be the beginning of infections up the ladder in a leg too weak to easily look after itself. Worse may be the fate of that foot and leg if it is at the same time confronted with elevated blood sugar.
Another cause of clots are prescription drugs designed to fight inflammation and pain. In this situation, nutritional or herbal blood thinners may work better and safer than the pharmaceutical drug Aspirin or inuafarin. Some of the prescription drugs which cause blood clots are pharmaceuticals such as non-Aspirin, Non steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) often prescribed by doctors for inflammation and pain. According to www.webmd.com : “people who use painkillers called Non steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) which include Aspirin, Naproxen (Aleve)and Ibuprofen (Advil, matrin)…may be at increased risk for potentially deadly blood clots”.
We are advised by www.sciencenordic.com
“Drugs can increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, thrombosis, and blood clots in the legs and lungs. The EU is currently working to enforce stricter guidelines on the use of NSAID drugs. Common painkillers can cause blood clots Common painkillers double the risk of blood clots in the legs and lungs, new research reveals. EU warnings against the pills are underway. Voltaren. Ibuprofen. Naproxen.
These are just some of the NSAID drugs that may be familiar to the average consumer.
Even though painkillers are widely used, they are by no means harmless. According to new research, the risk of developing blood clots in the legs or lungs is actually doubled when NSAID painkillers are consumed.
“What’s new about our study is that we show that patients who take NSAID medicine have a greater risk of developing blood clots in their legs or lungs. We already know from previous studies that several NSAID drugs increase the risk of cardiac fibrillation and thrombosis,” says doctor and PhD student Morten Schmidt, of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University Hospital.”
Few aging people escape from NSAIDS from the prescription pad. I did not in my thirties when I had a bout of pain in the right shoulder. An orthopedic doctor gave me NSAIDS which failed to clip the pain. Two weeks after, he changed the prescription to corticosteroids, which are often presented for rheumatoid arthritis. In this class of steroids are Prednisone and cortisone. I began to see harmattan hazes soon after in bright rain dry season weather. I kept asking my wife if it was about to rain. My opthalmologist, Prof Bukola Adefule Oshitelu, asked me which drugs I was on lately. When I told her, she took me off them immediately. The orthopedic doctor meant well for me. My right shoulder ached so badly and it was so weak I could not turn the car steering with it, wind the glass of the driver side door or even carry my office briefcase. I was lucky I did not develop clots which may have led to a heart attack or to breathing problems. Age was my friend. Since that time, I learned to pay a great deal of respect to Panadol (acetaminophen oral), a liver-damaging drug when taken in excess and to which many people pay the least drug respect. Many old people are not so lucky. They suffer a lot from bone degeneration, inflammation, pain and nerve pain, and are often given these drugs. If their diet is such that thickens the blood, such as red meat, bread, milk, sugar, margarine and butter and fried foods to mention a few, NSAIDS or corticosteroids may do them in for blood clots which cause Venous Return Insufficiency in the legs.
One way valves
Veins are designed with one way or non-return valves in them. As the heart pump drives the blood from downstream towards the heart upstream, their job is to prevent the blood from, literally speaking, falling back downstream under the force of gravity. If these valves are weak or damaged, they would not be able to perform this function in the successful return of blood to the heart through the veins. Weakness or damage of these valves is the flight of persons such as police men and soldiers, surgeons and nurses and such other persons who stand for too long. It is also the problem of persons who sit for prolonged periods of time.
Diseases
There are many diseases of the blood vessels which may cause venous insufficiency. One of these is Buerger’s Disease. It is a swelling of blood vessels largely in the hands and legs. The swellings narrow the vessels, inhibiting blood flow and encouraging clots to form. If care is not taken, pain and tissue damage may follow and this may lead to gangrene, in which the tissues begin to decay or die. Before I address possible natural solutions to these challenges, which should be easy for avid readers to guess, please permit that I only scratch the surface this week with the mention of two plant medicines rarely mentioned here. One of them is Butcher’s Broom. The other is Horse Chestnut. More will join the train next week.
Add to these recipes the help that is likely to come by exercising The Second Heart. All of us have two hearts. We know of the one in the chest region but not of the other. That other is The Calf (back of the lower leg). When we stretch out the foot and move it backwards as many times as we can, the calf muscles are in activity. We can feel the movements in the muscles at the back of the lower limb.This helps to force the blood upwards against the downward push of gravity and, thereby, reduces pressure on the one way non return valves. This saves them unnecessary labour and elongates their life spans.