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The average human body contains an impressive 60,000 miles of blood vessels, including arteries, arterioles, veins, venules, and capillaries. Like any network, you want your blood vessels to be free and clear to encourage good circulation from head to toe, allowing every inch of your body to receive critical resources.
When you have peripheral vascular disease (PVD), which can affect any of the blood vessels outside your heart, it can lead to some serious health consequences, not the least of which is heart disease.
With that in mind, Dr. Satjit Bhusri and the team here at The Upper East Side Vein Institute want to review a few of the key risk factors for peripheral vascular disease.
A quick word about peripheral vascular disease
Before we dive into risk factors for PVD, we want to briefly review what occurs when you have this condition. With PVD, your blood vessels progressively narrow, usually due to atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of plaque inside the walls of your arteries.
As a result, blood doesn’t flow as freely, which can lead to a wide range of complications that range from leg pain and fatigue to heart attack and stroke.
Major risk factors for PVD
The list of factors that place you more at risk for PVD is a long one, so we’re focusing on those we see more commonly here at our practice. These risk factors include:
1. High blood pressure
Nearly half of adults in the United States have high blood pressure, a condition in which the force of blood against the walls of the arteries is too high. Over time, this force can damage the linings of these blood vessels, making them stiffer and more apt to collect plaque. This plaque can then lead to atherosclerosis and PVD.
2. Diabetes
For the more than 38 million Americans who have diabetes, there is a long list of potential complications, and PVD is near the top. When you have diabetes, your blood sugar levels are chronically high, thanks to a lack of insulin and/or insulin resistance. As a result of these higher-than-normal glucose levels, your blood vessels can become damaged and start to succumb to atherosclerosis.
3. Older age
As with many health conditions, aging can be an influential factor for PVD. Plaque buildup in your arteries happens over time, and the blood vessels continue to narrow. This explains why being over the age of 50 is considered a major risk factor for PVD.
4. Being overweight
Nearly 1 in 3 adults in the US are overweight, and more than 2 out of 5 have obesity. Carrying these extra pounds places more stress on your vast network of blood vessels, which can lead to PVD.
5. Transitioning through menopause
Women who transition through menopause are more at risk for PVD because of the loss of estrogen hormones, which play a protective role in blood vessel health.
As we said, there are many other risk factors for PVD, such as a history of smoking, but we wanted to highlight the more common ones here. If you can check any of the risk factor boxes above, it’s a great idea to come see us for an evaluation of your vascular health.
To get that ball rolling, we invite you to call our New York City office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 212-752-3464 to schedule a visit. Or you can request an appointment online by clicking here.