Swollen feet and ankles ranging from the knees and below is associated to fluid build up in the tissues. This occurs when fluids are pulled to your feet and ankles causing them to swell. This sudden swellings may be an indicator of a kidney disfunction, liver including the heart as a major pumping organ. Depending on the cause, swollen feet, ankles have treatment options including elevating of the feet above the level of the heart and use of inflammatories can help reduce the swelling. Please see a doctor if you have persistent swelling. Hope this can help. Good luck.
Swelling in the lower extremities is caused by fluid build up or retention. There are lots of reasons for this, but there are mostly due to poor circulation from weakened blood vessels. The fluid moves down and because of gravity has more difficulty moving back through to the upper body, so it settles and builds up. You should see your Doctor. For now, you could elevate your legs as much as possible. And you can find a good pair of OTC compression hose at the pharmacy. OTC compression hosiery can also be purchased online. Juzo, Sigvaris, and Mediven are good quality (I use sigvaris, they are girl friendly). You will know if they OTC because they will say 9-16 mm Hg, this is the amount of compression that they provide. Anything higher than that can not be purchased without a doctor's prescription. Go see your Doctor, because there may be lots of reasons for your swelling.
The best thing to avoid swelling in the areas you are describing is to wear ted hose. Not only is teds good for that, it also helps with circulation. Elevate your legs as much as you can and do not sit straight up if you can avoid it. All this could be a sign of water retention as well. You really need to see your Dr about this because there is a underlying reason for the edema (swelling).
Principally it is due to the fact that your feet (ankles) are farthest away from the heart. Blood-criculation is therefore not as perfect as it should be, all depending on your general condition and age. When walking on a hot summer day on hot asphalt, even a very young, fit and healthy person's ankles and feet will swell. Blood is rushing to your feet to nourish the muscles and cool down in general. Also, overweight, pregnancy and a slightly damaged lymphatic system will cause the swelling.
Especially due to overweight, your veins are not strong enough to pump all blood back upwards into the main-veins on your upper tigh and further to the heart. So, as long as the excertion lasts (like walking or worse still: standing) an excess of blood stays down there causing the swelling.
It will go back as soon as you sit or lie down with your feet up! If you suffer from this problem, make a Kneipp-treatment with every shower: change hot+very cold water – better still, fill two buckets – one hot + one very cold, then step from one- while making a walking motion, into the other, after about 2 mintues, repeat 4-6 times.
