| BY ELINOR NAUEN | | | | |
| | | | Also at risk are African Americans and anyone |
| You walk a block, then clutch your leg with | | | | with chronic kidney disease, high blood |
| what feels like a charley horse. You stop, | | | | pressure, high blood cholesterol or a |
| and the pain does too. The discomfort may be | | | | personal or family history of vascular |
| a warning of a common yet serious condition | | | | disease, heart attack or stroke. An estimated |
| called peripheral arterial disease (PAD). | | | | 8 to 12 million people in this country have |
| | | | PAD. |
| In PAD, the same fatty material that can clog | | | | |
| heart arteries builds up in the arteries of | | | | If you have risk factors, talk to your |
| the legs, blocking blood flow. The risk for | | | | doctor, whether or not you have symptoms. The |
| death from heart attack or stroke is six to | | | | PAD Coalition, a consortium of health |
| seven times greater in people with | | | | organizations and government agencies, |
| PAD-equivalent to the risk of someone who's | | | | recommends that those at risk get a quick, |
| had a heart attack or stroke. Without prompt | | | | painless, accurate and inexpensive diagnostic |
| treatment, one in four people with the | | | | test called an ABI (ankle-brachial index). |
| condition will suffer a heart attack, stroke | | | | |
| or amputation or die within five years. | | | | The good news: PAD is both preventable and |
| | | | treatable. "PAD is a common and serious |
| PAD is most often recognized when it causes | | | | disease, which merits immediate and lifelong |
| claudication-fatigue, cramps, tiredness or | | | | attention," says Dr. Hirsch. "Become informed |
| pain in the leg or buttock muscles that goes | | | | and take actions to protect your health." |
| away when you stop walking. Less frequently, | | | | |
| PAD can cause ulcers or slow-healing wounds | | | | Arms for Legs |
| on the feet or toes, or pain in the feet or | | | | |
| toes that disturbs sleep. However, as many as | | | | While exercise is helpful for people with |
| half to two thirds of those with the | | | | PAD, walking-a typical workout for |
| condition have no symptoms. | | | | sufferers-can also be painful. Diane |
| | | | Treat-Jacobson, R.N., Ph.D., assistant |
| As with coronary heart disease, key risk | | | | professor at the University of Minnesota in |
| factors for PAD are having diabetes, smoking | | | | Minneapolis, has done studies on the effects |
| or having smoked, and being over age 50. "If | | | | of exercise on people with PAD. She recently |
| you have no other risk factors, age alone | | | | discovered that supervised training using |
| will increase risk-and yet risk rapidly | | | | aerobic arm exercise was as beneficial as |
| increases even in younger people who smoke or | | | | treadmill walking in improving walking |
| have diabetes," says Alan T. Hirsch, M.D., | | | | distance. Treat-Jacobson notes that while |
| professor of epidemiology at the University | | | | results are preliminary, arm exercise might |
| of Minnesota School of Public Health in | | | | be a pain-free option that can "help break |
| Minneapolis. "We want people to recognize | | | | the cycle of disability or enable patients to |
| that if you are over 50 and have any other | | | | start exercising sooner after a surgical |
| risk factor, you have a one in four chance of | | | | procedure. |
| having PAD." | | | | |