How To Manage Your Water Retention

When it comes to water retention, you may think of swollen ankles and hands, stiff joints, and extra weight - but there's much more to it than meets the eye. In fact, water retention can affect your entire body and wreak havoc on your health if left unchecked or untreated. Which is exactly why learning how to manage this condition and taking action is essential. In this blog post, we'll explore the potential causes for water retention and present possible solutions that could help you get back on track to feeling back on track!

What is Causing My Water Retention?

There are many factors that play complex roles in regulating fluid levels in our bodies. Such as cardiovascular factors, kidney related factors, hormonal factors and lifestyle factors. If there happens to be any problem in any of these, water retention happens!

Lifestyle factors: 

- Standing or sitting too long, gravity keeps blood in your lower extremities.

- Consuming too much sodium, by using a lot of table salt or ingesting processed foods and soft drinks.

- Not drinking enough water can cause your body to store water in its tissue, leading to water retention.

- Also drinking too much bottled water can lead to Electrolyte imbalance, which will cause the body to retain more water.

Certain Illnesses:
- Heart failure, which occurs when the heart can’t pump blood effectively, can cause the body to retain water.
- High blood pressure (hypertension) causes capillary (small blood vessels) damage, Capillaries deliver fluid to surrounding tissues and if damaged, too much liquid can leave the capillaries and enter the spaces between cells, causing swelling and water retention.

- Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a clot in the veins of the leg, causing painful swelling of the calf. This is considered a medical emergency.
- Kidney diseases cause water retention in the arms and legs. This happens when the kidneys are not able to filter excess fluids from the body, leading to buildup.

- Some medications cause water retention as a side effect. These can include:

·   over-the-counter (OTC) pain killers

·   blood pressure medications

·   certain hormonal birth control pills

Menstruation:

92% of premenopausal women suffer from water retention right before and during the first couple of days of the period. They complain of swollen ankles and fingers, bloating in the belly and breast tenderness. This mainly happens because of the action of progesterone which causes sagging in the walls of the veins leading to impaired drainage and water retention.

How Can I Get Rid of Water Retention?

- Limit salt in your diet
- drink better quality water to flush out the excess salt and waste.

- Increase magnesium, which can be found in Nuts, leafy, green vegetables, and dark chocolate. Magnesium is also available as a supplement.

- Increase Vitamin B6 which can be found in Bananas, walnuts, and meat.

- Avoid refined carbs before your menstrual cycle. Processed sugars and grains.
- Regular exercise can enhance the circulation thus relieving water retention

- Lying or sitting with the legs raised above the waist a few times a day will help.

- Massage can help improve circulation. massaging toward the heart to increase the blood return and circulation

- Wear a compression garment. Compression socks, stockings or sleeves work by improving the blood flow to your arms and legs.

- Herbal water retention tablets like dandelion root and leaf
- And of course monitor your blood work, especially your hormone profile, kidney function and aldosterone levels (A steroid hormone made by the adrenal adrenal gland. It helps control the balance of water and salts in the kidney)

Water retention is common, it might be a sign of an underlying cause and may get serious if untreated but luckily there are lots of things you can do to understand why it's happening and to  reduce its symptoms naturally. By checking on your blood work, making some simple lifestyle changes and taking the right supplements you may be able to reduce the puffiness for good! Connect with Valeo to take the first steps and get all the guidance you need to manage your water retention.