When it comes to edema, everyone may feel differently. Some women find that their eyelids are a little swollen when they wake up in the morning, which will affect their appearance; some people have swollen legs and find it hard to wear shoes; some people have swollen limbs. However, the more common is the edema of the lower extremities. This is because of gravity, which causes edema to easily gather in the lower extremities.

In the past, I often heard people say that edema is drinking too much water, and it is good to drink less water when edema is found. Some people do this and it is effective, but edema will still appear soon. Modern medicine believes that edema is mostly related to liver disease, kidney disease, and heart disease. Diseases, or even tumors, so why does edema occur? How to determine the cause of edema, and how to deal with it? Today, let’s talk about this issue.

Why edema?

Although the skin of normal people may not be delicate and smooth, it has at least a certain degree of elasticity. It will sag when you press it with your fingers, but when you release your hand, it will naturally return to its original appearance. However, if it is swollen, it will not recover immediately if you press it with your hand and then release it, but there is a phenomenon of depression, which is called edema in medicine. Edema often occurs in the lower extremities, which is medically called lower extremity edema. In some places, because the cause cannot be determined, the swollen feet are thought to be athlete’s foot infection, which is easy to confuse.

What does edema mean? What are the reasons? Does it matter?

In fact, the edema water mainly comes from the human body itself. The osmotic pressure in the blood of normal people is constant. The osmotic pressure is mainly maintained by the albumin in the blood. Once the albumin decreases, the blood osmotic pressure is insufficient. Water naturally leaks from the blood vessels into the cells and tissues, forming edema.

As for why edema occurs? Common situations include the following:

1. Liver problems:

Edema caused by poor liver is the most common cause of edema in patients with corresponding diseases. The liver is the largest chemical factory in the human body, and is responsible for synthesizing most of the proteins in the human body. When the liver function is insufficient, there is a disorder, and when the synthesized protein is not enough, it will cause edema. This situation usually occurs when acute hepatitis is severe and outbreaks. Hepatitis, or end-stage cirrhosis.

Lower extremity edema is also common in the end stage of liver cancer, mostly due to complications of liver cirrhosis or reduction of normal hepatocytes, resulting in insufficient synthesis of albumin; in addition, when the tumor invades or compresses the inferior vena cava, the blood of the lower extremities cannot return to the heart, which is also the case. A common cause of end-stage edema in liver disease.

What needs to be said here is that ascites is actually a type of edema, but because ascites has obvious characteristics, and the disease is mainly related to liver disease and digestive tract tumors, it is often diagnosed and treated separately, and I will not explain it in detail here. .

2. Kidney problems:

Kidney disease is also a common cause of edema. In acute glomerular (the unit of the kidneys that filter blood) nephritis or nephrotic syndrome (the glomeruli leaking large amounts of protein for unknown reasons), the albumin in the blood decreases, causing edema. Edema in kidney disease is often systemic, such as the face, eyelids, upper and lower extremities, and is not the same as liver edema in lower extremities.

Kidney edema is mainly related to kidney function. Generally speaking, urine contains a large amount of protein, which leads to the lack of albumin in human blood. However, kidney disease generally has a long development process, which can control protein leakage at an early stage. slows the progression of kidney disease. But the problem is that the kidneys have a strong compensatory ability. There are no obvious symptoms in the early stage or even in the middle stage. When edema occurs, the condition is already serious. Therefore, don’t ignore the problems of protein and occult blood in the urine test. Don’t ignore because of false positives.

3. Heart problems:

The blood flowing to the extremities relies on the “blood pump” of the heart to return the blood to the heart. If there is a problem with the heart (heart weakness), the blood cannot easily return from the lower extremities to the heart, and the blood will accumulate in the lower extremities, and the water in the blood will be lost. It can penetrate into the interstitial space and cause edema.

This situation, if lying down, will be relieved, and it is easy to be confused with edema caused by fatigue. The main difference is whether this situation is occasional or frequent. If it occurs continuously, you should go to the hospital for diagnosis and examination as soon as possible.

4. Long-term malnutrition:

No matter what the reason is, the long-term persistent lack of food and nutrition will lead to insufficient protein synthesis by the liver, which will also cause edema.

Malnourished edema presents systemic edema, and when ascites or pleural effusion occurs, it is a more critical condition. This kind of situation is rare in China now, but some women may also experience such symptoms if they go on an artificial diet or suffer from anorexia in order to lose weight.

Five, vascular obstruction:

The inferior vena cava (the large blood vessel that sends blood back to the heart) is blocked, such as tumor invasion or tumor compression.

In China, this is more common in patients with end-stage liver cancer. In addition, venous obstruction of lower extremity return, such as venous inflammation, can also cause lower extremity edema, but it is usually localized.

What to do when you have edema?

First of all, if you find edema, you must go to the hospital for examination to find out the cause and rule out the disease. The hospital usually draws blood to check liver function (including albumin) and kidney function first, and may need to do cardiac examination if necessary. If the patient has a history of these aspects, it is also a priority.

For the liver, blood test items include albumin, globulin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, bilirubin, viral hepatitis B, viral hepatitis C, alpha-fetoprotein, etc., in addition to abdominal ultrasound.

In terms of renal function, it includes urine test and blood test to check urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Creatinine).

For the heart, there are chest X-rays, electrocardiograms, auscultation, and if necessary, cardiac ultrasounds.

Does edema matter, how to treat it?

Edema usually represents a problem with the body, and must be diagnosed and treated in detail. Different causes have different treatments.

If it is edema caused by tumor compression, the prognosis is poor. After tumor resection or treatment for tumor shrinkage, the edema can disappear or relieve. However, if it is advanced, the treatment effect is preferred, and the edema may not be eliminated, but only a certain relieving effect. ; If the edema is caused by poor liver or kidney, it can be improved with diuretics or albumin. The two diseases may be reversed in the early stage. Once it develops to the middle and late stages, it can only be relieved. Attention should be paid to dietary adjustments; if it is edema caused by a poor heart, it can be improved by controlling high blood pressure or improving myocardial function, as well as diuretics.