Swollen - Feet and Legs, Hands

I think medical professionals would probably say something like blood pooling causes it. I think there probably can be many causes. This may be particular to me, but eating sencha green tea used to help me when my hands and feet got swollen and itchy. My doc told me to eat it to detox.

I used to buy it loose leaf from Amazon and grind it up and mix it in coconut yogurt before my body went psychotic and made me allergic to it along with most things. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F7KMQ86/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Q8A1X464AT88CGK0Y3PC That should be the one I used to buy, but my doc wasn’t specific about brands. My doc said you can use matcha tea too but I didn’t want the caffeine. I think I had a mild herx the first time similar to what you get the first time you use a new binder. But after that it was fine. I think I read online it can sometimes help inhibit babesia. It’s not like some very weird herb, but a fairly popular green/herbal tea. It did make me feel a little more clear minded. I think it’s high in some compound that acts as a good detoxer? Catechins?

Oh sorry you asked me how much, I think I used to eat like a tablespoon raw each day, it it wasn’t exact.

Post Edited (Bailey) : 6/5/2021 9:09:58 AM (GMT-6)

Could it be because of poor lymph flow? My girlfriend does a lot of lymph massage to help with that. But as she is standing a lot when working now she is having more problems with being swollen in her legs, so we are buying a vibration platform for that next week.
https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-perform-lymphatic-drainage-massage#effectiveness

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 6/6/2021 12:38:09 AM (GMT-6)

hi WBF - i think there can be a larger number of causes.

infections
-many infections target the endothelial cells that line our blood vessels throughout our body, causing direct damage and dysfunction in the vasculature.

-to try to put this in context - there are around 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the average adult human body -so you can see that anything that messes with those is likely to cause significant systemic effects.

-lyme, bart, mycoplasma, rickettsia are the ones most associated with blood vessel damage.
rickettsia most associated with widespread oedema ( swelling) typically shows up in the extremities more - eg especially the feet when standing.

-the mechanism here is simple - damage to the blood vessels allows plasma in the blood to leak through more than it should - the lymph system is not able to drain it away as rapidly as it is leaking - resulting in swelling

autonomic dysfunction
-the above massive vasculature system is not a passive network of pipes but a highly active system that is constantly changing to maintain blood flow and distribution as we change our position, activity level, temperature and state of stress. it has its own sets of nerves and signalling compounds to help it to do this - but can be thought of as a network with many valves and flow regulators.

-when this nervous system is disturbed these flow controls can be disrupted resulting in not enough pressure or flow in some places eg as in POTS - and too much in other places - resulting in swelling. it is essentially a nervous system disorder - root causes are a little murky as far as i understand it. i think its quite likely an auto-immune demyelating condition.

some form or another of this seems common in the Lyme community. swelling, blood pooling, Renaud's like effects, poor capillary refil, odd skin colour ( pink, purple, patches etc) , livedo reticularis etc etc

electrolyte imbalance.
-its well known that electrolyte imbalance can cause severe swelling of extremities in particular. we might not be aware of these building up or taking place. They can be caused over time by unusual diets ( common in our community) medications, supplements, herbs etc

-as an anecdote, i have a friend who has various mental health difficulties that his doctors keep trying out new medications for, with limited success. But several of them have caused his feet to swell to 2x their normal size when he is stood up - and his head to swell when he lies down. its a known side effect of the medication but they are stuck with the conventional approach to mental health - the neurotransmitter imbalance hypothesis. Twice now he has been hospitalised and unconscious due to low sodium levels.

beyond those there are the other mechanisms mentioned by others

i know thats a long list - i don't mean to sound like"there are so many things that you cant know which it is"

far from it

my meaning is more - to find out what it is in your particular case you may need to cast the net wide and go through a process of elimination to narrow it down - then do some trials based on that to see what helps most.

hope its of some help at least

WBF - I am guessing your kidney numbers are still good? I remember an old post where your GFR, BUN and other kidney tests were good. That would be something to look at.

Have you gotten any rash with the swelling that goes away in a couple of days. Reason I ask is I have had that happen a few times after long day at track meets running around. Some swelling in feet and ankles, along with a mild rash on ankles and feet. Doctor said he did not think it played out as vasculitis.

So you think the first time it happened it many have been from detoxing mold? Anything change recently with treatment or how you feel, other than the swelling? Sorry for so may questions. Just brainstorming and trying to relate to something.

The tops of my feet were read at my first LLND appt. (as they usually were) = and he said I hade Veinous pooling - from POTS.

It went away after lyme/bart treatment