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Archive for August, 2011

As the name suggests, compression socks are especially manufactured socks aimed at offering a uniform level of compression on the legs of the wearer. The main purpose of wearing such socks is to control a condition commonly referred to as pooling of blood. In this condition, blood starts accumulating the legs of the individual affected and leads to a number of consequential issues such as ache, sores, edema, and in some cases even gangrene. By offering a uniform pressure on the legs of the wearer, compression socks are able to promote the flow of blood, enabling it to travel back to the heart. This way, by promoting the flow of blood, these socks are able to prevent pooling of blood in the individual’s lower limbs.

With diabetes being one of the most commonly found ailment with pooling of blood as an associated issue, most diabetic care experts prescribe these socks to people dealing with diabetes. The reason for this condition to occur along with diabetes is the deterioration in the ability of the affected individual’s body to process cholesterol. The unprocessed cholesterol in the blood starts to deposit on the walls of the nerves causing a restriction in the blood passages, thereby preventing it from reaching the heart causing the already mentioned issues in the lower limbs of those affected.

Since the motion of blood while returning from the legs to the heart is against the gravity while the legs being the farthest body part from the heart, the deteriorated veins are unable to offer sufficient channel for the oxidized blood to reach back to the heart, and hence, pooling of blood. By using diabetic socks, people dealing with this condition are able to find relief from this problem and are able to lead a much healthier and trouble free life without having to rely on harmful medicine and highly expensive medical therapies.

Due to their large demand compression hosiery is being made in a number of options such as support pantyhose, compression knee socks, and several other remarkable options to suit people with different needs. However, when buying any type of compression socks, it is extremely important to ensure the quality of the option you are going for. This is particularly important as people often get lured by ridiculously low priced imports and waste their money as poor quality compression hosiery slack after a very short while, making them utter wastage of your hard-earned money.

The metabolic syndrome is actually a group of risk factors that can predispose someone to developing Type 2 diabetes. These risk factors include things like:

high blood pressure,
high blood sugar, and
high cholesterol levels.

These three conditions are almost always tied together. It makes sense because high levels of glucose damage the lining inside your arteries, so cholesterol rushes to the rescue to patch you up so you don’t bleed to death from the small lesions everywhere.

Excess blood sugar is stored as cholesterol and triglycerides along with all the other rubbish and clogs your arteries. The plague leads them to stiffen or harden which is atherosclerosis, and then your blood pressure rises. This is the metabolic syndrome.

Because these threats may contribute to other factors such as blood clots forming, and if they break away, cause a heart attack, it’s important to ask your doctor the right questions about this condition which could also lead to full-blown Type 2 diabetes.

Here are some questions you can ask your doctor if you have been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, or if you’re worried that you may have it:

Do I need to lose weight? If so, how much weight do I need to lose in order to reduce my risk of metabolic syndrome and the associated complications with it?
Do I need to speak with a nutritionist so that I can overhaul my diet?
Are there any medications I’m taking which could be causing the symptoms that mimic metabolic syndrome?
Will I need medication to control my symptoms or can I change my lifestyle to reverse the condition? (hint: Find another doctor if they tell you that you cannot reverse the condition by changing your lifestyle!)
Does my family history play a factor in whether or not I develop the metabolic syndrome?
Do you have recommendations for how I can get more physical activity? What if I’m too overweight or have medical issues?
What is my BMI?
Do I appear to have too much inflammation in my body that might cause blood clots or other issues? Do we need to do any additional testing?
Should I be taking an aspirin a day?
Can you recommend any nutritional supplements that might lower my cholesterol or blood pressure? In other words, do I have to take medication in order to reverse these conditions?

As you can see, there are lots of questions associated with the metabolic syndrome that you might want to ask your doctor. Some of them are specific to your own situation, however others are meant more to see if your doctor is geared primarily towards traditional treatment methods or is open to more natural methods as well.

Any doctor who says lifestyle modifications will not help you to reverse the metabolic syndrome has either not studied the recent research or is not open to these methods. It’s important you know how lifestyle factors can greatly increase or decrease your chances of having metabolic syndrome. It is definitely crucial for you to eat better, exercise and include supplements and healthy foods into your daily regimen.