6 Tips To Deal With Swollen Feet.

Have you ever had swollen feet after a long tiring flight? Or after a long day of sitting at work? You may encounter swollen feet at any stage of your life, and various reasons can cause this. In females, it can be due to pregnancy or PMS because of hormonal changes, injury, blockage of the lymphatic system, heart disease, liver disease, infection, insufficient venous blood, obesity, blood clot, kidney disease, or side-effects of any medication. Prolonged sitting with feet down is also a contributing factor. Swollen feet may seem trivial in daily life but should never be neglected if encountered often. This can be a warning sign of an underlying disease. You must consult your doctor and get it diagnosed. To effectively treat it, you need to get to the root cause. However, few exercises that help in increasing the blood circulation and hence decreasing swollen feet are:

1. Toe Pointing And Flexion – Get yourself seated in a chair or on the floor

• - Extend one leg and point your toe forward (away from your body as far as possible)
• - Hold for 5 seconds before returning to normal position
• - Repeat 10 times for each foot

2. Ankle Circles – Sit on a chair and extend one leg. Make 5 clockwise and anticlockwise circles, each rotating your ankles.

• - Repeat it 10 times for each leg

3. Squeezing Your Toes – Make cotton balls and place them in between your toes

• - Squeeze your toes inside, hold for 5 seconds and relax
• - Repeat 10 times

4. In And Outs – Sit on the floor. Use a thick rubber band to hold feet together.

• - Pull toes and fore-feet away from each other
• - Hold this position for 5 seconds and relax
• - Repeat 10 times

5. Ball Massage – Sit on a chair. Place a ball under the arch of your foot

• - Roll the ball applying slight pressure
• - Do this for 30 seconds for each

6. Rock Your Foot – Stand with feet flat on the floor

• - Rock forward onto the balls of your feet and then rock back on the heels
• - Do at least 10 rocks

Some precautions to keep in mind are:

• - Do not sit for long with feet hanging
• - Move around a bit after every 2 hours
• - Try to lose weight if you are overweight
• - Drink a lot of fluids
• - Elevate feet with a pillow under them while sleeping