|
| |
[ Up ]
|
Chronic Oedema
(Edema).
Read
on for Maggi's experience. Click here
for scientific findings
Having
had polio as a 2 year old in 1950, I developed severe post-polio syndrome
symptoms 10 years ago, necessitating my early retirement from a busy managerial
job and the use of an electric wheelchair. A particular area of difficulty was
my circulation with grossly swollen, cold feet which were both unsightly and
painful.
|
|
I
regularly developed ulcers on my feet, despite the district nurse’s
best efforts. Another effect was that I had to stop driving as my grossly swollen
legs and feet meant that I couldn't wear normal shoe - and therefore
couldn't get my caliper on...
However,
help was at hand from an unexpected source:
Having
arranged to buy my
eczema-friendly skincare products and cosmetics
from Optimum Health
Products, I thought
that I might as well buy the antioxidant complex and the vitamin and mineral
solution that
my reflexologist also recommended.
This
was back in May 1999. By the middle of June (not thinking about the
nutritional supplements at all) I noticed that my toes were pink and warm. This
was so unusual that I at first saw them with dismay and thought that I was
getting another foot ulcer. But it wasn’t an ulcer starting. My feet started
to lose their habitual blue tone and started to feel warm to the touch. After
six weeks or so, what I had started to suspect was now apparent – my extremely
swollen feet were getting slimmer.
By
the time we went to Tenerife in late July, my feet and ankles weren’t swollen
at all and I could get ordinary shoes on. Even after a four-hour flight, my feet
were fine and not exploding painfully over the tops of my shoes. My husband of
five years kept on looking at my “little feet” – he had never actually
seen my ankles before!
 |
wasn’t enough, I’ve
got more physical “bounce” and stamina, and generally am bright eyed and
bushy tailed! Friends who haven’t seen me for a while are startled by the
change in me, and I must confess to being thrilled by the change myself:- life
is just so much more fun with a bit of energy and stamina.
|
|
Since then, my health has continued to improve quite
dramatically, with sustained energy and stamina and the complete absence of
oedema – even after a couple of 4-hour plane journeys.
|
A completely unexpected side outcome is that the
problem I had of “urgency” (which began after my hysterectomy and which was
made more problematic since having difficulties with managing getting to the
toilet independently) has disappeared. I can now get to the toilet at a much
more leisurely pace - and any women in a wheelchair will know how important THAT
is.
We have had a lot of anecdotal reports about this being related to taking
products which contain oligomeric pro-anthocyanidins so Paul is searching the research again so see what exactly brings this
about.
At
first we couldn’t begin to see why an antioxidant should have this effect, but
my research scientist husband looked into the scientific research
and discovered
that the formulation was unusual, containing Ginkgo Biloba and oligomeric pro-anthocyanidins
in
addition to the standard vitamins A, C & E.
|
Ginkgo Biloba is widely
mentioned as something that can improve peripheral circulation (toes, fingers
and brain) and I had tried it before in my attempt to reduce the swelling. Alone
didn’t have any noticeable effect on my circulation, but it seems to work
synergistically with the pycnogenols. |
|
When
he started looking for information about the pycnogenols
(other scientific name oligomeric proanthrocyanidins), he
discovered that various
research studies had shown that they are effective in “toning”
the vessels of the circulatory and lymphatic systems, thus making
them more efficient.
Paul also found that the vitamin and mineral solutions that I
was taking contains minerals important in the maintenance of antioxidant activity, including
selenium, copper manganese and zinc, and also vitamin B6 which has been found to
help in oedema.
|
|
I've
been taking these dietary supplements for nearly 2 years now (as of
May 2001) and people I meet now find it difficult to believe that my
slim elegant little feet could ever have been blue, tight and
grossly swollen. I take 4 of the anti-oxidant complex a day - 6 if I am going on a
plane. Interestingly, when just once during this period I was unable
to take them for 2 weeks, the swelling started to return. |
So
it does seem to be, for me at least, that I'll be taking them "for
life". Fortunately, that feels fine with me, as I also have to take
food and water "for life", and I think of them in the
same category...
|
|
