Taking care of yourself at home with pain in the legs

Home care depends on the cause of pain in the legs. When stretching and deforming the muscles or ligaments of the leg, the initial recommendation is the imposition of ice, between which breaks are required for 15-20 minutes. Ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen (Tylenol) can be used to control pain. Although over-the-counter medications are generally unsafe to take because they may not interact properly with other medicines that you take with the prescription of a doctor. Before treating at home, be sure to consult him for advice

How to treat pain in the legs at home?

Treatment of pain in the legs depends on the diagnosis. Once the cause of the pain is established, the treatment is focused on pain management and pain control, as well as on the prevention or recurrence of pain in the future.

Trauma of the tendon and gastrocnemius muscle is usually treated, forcing the body to produce collagen fibers. They will help to produce scar tissue in the area of muscle damage. Depending on the severity of the damage, it may take several days or weeks to completely heal the leg after the injury.

At the initial stage of restoring the leg, it is important that the muscles recover in length. That is, you could bend them and unbend them. This requires stretching exercises that are used to help restore the hamstring of the muscles along the entire length to restore the full range of motion of the knee joint. The decision about when to start these exercises or use other types of physical therapy, individually for each patient. This will help the doctor.

Crutches with pain in the legs

Crutches can be used for the first few days after an injury to allow a rest leg. Elastic bandages (or wraps) can be applied to the hip, starting from the knee and moving up to the hip joint to ensure their compression. Ibuprofen may be offered as anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relief. As with any use of medications, it is important to consult a pharmacist or orthopedic practitioner to make sure that it is safe to take ibuprofen in each case.

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Sciatic pain

People with sciatic pain after a leg injury should consider a short period of bed rest (usually less than 24 hours), after which you can start to get up and do leg exercises. Changing ice and heat application can be beneficial, and acetaminophen and ibuprofen can be used in combination with physiotherapy.

If the pain in the legs is associated with impaired spine activity, this may mean that the spinal cord is under the threat of permanent damage and emergency medical care must be provided immediately.

Pain in the legs with chronic diseases

For patients with chronic diseases (for example, diabetes mellitus), the prevention of trauma is often the best treatment. Pain in the legs of patients with diabetes is very difficult to manage; need a normal regime of the day and feasible exercise.

In addition, it is necessary to monitor high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the development of diabetes. Control over these diseases, as well as quitting smoking will minimize the risk of peripheral vascular disease of the legs.

Most of the circumstances that cause leg pains occur slowly, the patient often does not know what and how he needs to be treated, and home care should be individualized for each patient.

Your doctor is an important person for you, which will help you make the correct diagnosis and tell you how to take care of your feet at home with pain.

If there is acute pain with swelling of the legs or loss of sensitivity, while the legs are very cold, they become numb, medical assistance should be provided immediately. Do not just go for home treatment.

Alternative remedies for leg pain

Steam baths and massage once a week are very useful for eliminating pain in the legs.

Take 10-15 grams of camphor and 200-250 grams of mustard oil and mix in a glass bottle and keep this bottle in the sun until the camphor dissolves properly. Massage the affected area every day, this is one of the best home remedies for pain relief in the legs.

Proper nutrition - 4-5 walnuts a day - is a very good remedy for relieving from leg pain for a short time.

Admission of fish oil helps in the treatment of all kinds of pain in the legs and removes the general weakness of the body.

When to seek medical help for pain in the legs

People often decide for a long time whether to seek medical help after an injury, based on their ability to stand, to keep the weight of the body with their feet, but the main thing is to walk. This is reasonable, however, if there is a fear that the bone is broken or after a leg injury there is a significant swelling of the joint, medical care should be sought urgently. One important reminder: simply because the leg can move does not mean that it has not suffered.

In most other situations, the pain in the legs increases gradually, and patients turn to the doctor only when the pain starts to interfere with their daily life. Often leg pain is a part of many symptoms that are difficult to assess separately without the help of an orthopedic specialist or traumatologist.

Sudden pain

If the pain in the legs starts suddenly, this should be cause for concern, and the doctor needs help urgently. This is especially important if the leg is hot, swollen, if a deep venous thrombosis is diagnosed. It is urgent to call a doctor and in the case when the leg is pale and cool, if there is a risk of developing blood clots in the veins and arteries.

If the pain occurs simultaneously in the back and legs with episodes of muscle weakness, after falling, if there is a change in the functioning of the intestine and bladder, this may indicate an emergency position of the spinal cord, which can be damaged, and then medical care must be provided immediately.

Mild pain in the legs can cure a simple massage with ointment, while constant pain sufferers require professional advice from a traumatologist, physiotherapy and even surgical operations. The degree of damage to the legs and muscle tissue determines the type of treatment. Pain in the back and legs can be combined due to the excess body weight of a person. Then the legs carry an increased load and are very often ill.

Pain in legs during pregnancy

Pain in the legs can occur during pregnancy due to overload of the abdominal muscles, which leads to pain in the waist and pelvic tension. This pain can be mild or acute. Some home remedies include simply resting the muscles, without the use of medication, especially if the pain in the muscles after such rest passes. But the dislocation of the lower back disk also causes severe pain in the back and legs. Treatment of such complications requires surgical intervention of qualified doctors. It is very important in such moments to call an ambulance.

Symptoms requiring emergency care

Some symptoms that require urgent medical intervention include: discoloration of the skin around the affected part of the foot, acute and persistent pain, fever, moments when the leg or back is immobilized.

Depending on the cause of pain in the legs, the need for further care after home treatment may be minimal if it is associated with trauma. But foot care and pain control can be lifelong if it is associated with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or arterial diseases.