Reader No. 1

I am a diabetic, I have water retention with swollen legs, ankles, feet.  I first noticed it about a year or little less ago.  I had been on Avandia, so my doctor took me off that.  But, I started insulin in Sept and I gained 35 pounds in 5 months.  I mentioned to my doc about the water retention but he says it is just weight gain.  I have never had problem with this before and I have never been this heavy before.  I was given a water pill and I felt like I went to the bathroom less that day than I normally do — as I go to the bathroom a lot, between the diabetes and I drink A LOT of coffee/tea.  I have been exercising (walking) and I cannot even go a half hour before my legs (shin area and ankles) hurt so bad I could cry and I have to stop.  It feels kind of like they are tightening up.  Is this a symptom of something?  I want to keep walking and will push myself through the pain if I know it is ok, but am worried that something else is wrong and should i push myself??  PS I am 40 years old. I do medical transcription as my job, work 1 full time and 1 part time and am sitting at a desk the best part of my day EVERY day.

Reader No. 2

Hi Linda, my wife is 33 and she has had diabetes all her life, In the past 12 months she’s has lost her eyesight thorught diabetic retinopathy and now suffering from diabetic neuropathy of which she has been prescribed various different drugs (pain killers and neuropathy disease tablets).  One of these drugs are called ‘Gabapentin’, just in the past week my wife has been taken off this drug beause it’s the main cause of severe water retention in her feet, ankles, legs, belly and (slighting lesser case in her) arms.  She has been prescibed 20mg ‘Furosemide’ and she has been taking these for the past couple of weeks but I can’t see much change if any.

Answer from Linda Lazarides

The first thing to understand about type-2 (adult-onset) diabetes is that it is a degenerative disease. This means that before I can offer any natural help or advice for this condition you have to understand what degeneration is.

Degeneration occurs when an individual’s diet and lifestyle are not adequate to maintain health in that individual. Unlike a car, the human body does not come with a manual. If it did, you would see the following instructions:

• Eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables every day
• Limit your consumption of sugary items to three times a week
• Limit your consumption of deep-fried foods and alcohol to once a week
• For every cup of tea or coffee, drink at least one glass of water
• Do not put sugar in drinks
• All bread must be made from whole-grain flour….  Etc.

Once degeneration has reached a very advanced state, it gets diagnosed by doctors as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and so on… It may or may not be accompanied by symptoms such as swollen legs, water retention and other problems. Insulin in particular, while necessary to treat insulin-dependent diabetes, is also prone to causing water retention.

All the doctor can do is give a pill here and there in an attempt to make the symptoms less troublesome.

If you really want to help the health of a person with a degenerative disease, you have to imagine that the person is a car, get out the manual, and do what it says. The Waterfall Diet book (paperback version, ISBN 0749942533) is a manual that can help point you in the right direction. Although written specifically for water retention, it has much useful information for people with degenerative diseases too, since water retention can occur both on its own and as part of a degenerative disease pattern.

Hoping this has been of some help, and wishing you well if you are a diabetic. Do let us know how you get on.

Water Retention And Diabetes is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. Water Retention In Men
2. How Does Sugar Cause Water Retention?

Help For Swollen Legs, PMS, High Blood Pressure

Water retention can cause many health problems, including swollen legs, arthritis and high blood pressure. If you have premenstrual swelling or bloating, this is also due to water retention. Pre-eclampsia of pregnancy, idiopathic edema and chronic venous insufficiency are also water retention-related problems.

Most people use the Waterfall Diet to lose water weight, but in fact this diet can help to relieve any health problem which is mainly due to water retention. The following are case reports from people who have followed the diet.

Audrey: A Case of Swollen Legs and Varicose Veins
Audrey was in her sixties, and had suffered from swollen legs since being in a minor car accident five years previously. Lately she had also developed varicose veins on one leg. The swelling problem got very bad in hot weather, and Audrey had to sit with her feet up as much as possible. Her doctor said she had chronic venous insufficiency and could only suggest wearing support stockings, or removing the varicose veins as a last resort. The skin on Audrey’s legs was very discoloured, and the varicose veins were unsightly, sore and painful. Her daughter had read about the Waterfall Diet, and bought her a copy of the book to see if the diet could help.

Audrey was very enthusiastic about trying a diet. She bought the recommended foods and carried out the tests, and within only two weeks her legs were already smaller, and her ankles were beginning to regain their shape. When she pressed her thumb into her leg, it no longer made a deep dent. The varicose veins were also beginning to look less prominent, and were much less tender. Audrey was very pleased with the results.

Marianne: A case of Premenstrual Bloating
Like many women, Marianne, aged 35, always looked forward to getting her period. It meant she could drop almost a whole dress size, since her tummy got so bloated for a week before her period. Marianne did her best to eat a healthy, low-fat diet, with plenty of fruit and vegetables. She saw the Waterfall Diet book on a bookshelf and didn’t really believe it could help her, but curiosity got the better of her and she decided to give it a try.

It was two months before Marianne really noticed a difference. In fact it was only after her period started that she realised she had not had any premenstrual bloating. An added bonus was that for the first time in many years, Marianne did not get any cramps either once her period started.

Exercise can also help water retention caused by PMS. See Harvard Health Publication.

Jonathan: A Case of High Blood Pressure
Jonathan was in his fifties and had just been diagnosed with high blood pressure. His doctor wanted to prescribe diuretic medicines. She said that reducing the amount of water in his body would help to keep down his blood pressure.

Jonathan wanted to avoid taking pharmaceutical medicines if at all possible so he did some research on the internet and found information about the Waterfall Diet. He reasoned that if water retention was causing his high blood pressure, then it would be healthier to follow a diet to get rid of it, rather than take prescription drugs which would never actually cure the problem.

Jonathan asked his wife if she could get the recommended foods and also help him to test for his safe foods, which is an important part of the Waterfall Diet Plan. So far everything has been going very well, and his doctor says he can continue without medication for the time being.

Karyll: A Case of Osteoarthritis
Karyll, aged 46, was walking up some stone steps when she wrenched her knee. It swelled up quite badly, and the swelling never really went down again. Karyll’s knee became permanently swollen, tight and painful. Three months later, her doctor diagnosed osteoarthritis and suggested giving her an injection of steroids into her knee.

Karyll succumbed to the injection, and it seemed to help for a while. But the problem did not go away completely, and also seemed to spread to the other knee. Karyll lived in a house with stairs and found herself having to take painkillers just to be able to go up and down the stairs in her house.

One day she was in a second-hand bookstore, and the Waterfall Diet book seemed to stand out. She said “My eye just kept getting drawn to it and in the end I had to open the book to take a look. Then I found a case report in it which was almost exactly the same problem I had. The woman had swollen knees, and was told she had arthritis, but when she went on the Waterfall Diet she discovered it was only water retention.”

Karyll found the diet hard at first, but persevered as the pain and swelling in her knees started to go down after only four days. She remains on the Waterfall Diet and is delighted that she no longer has to take painkillers in order to climb the stairs in her house.

The Waterfall Diet book is available from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. The instructions can also be found in the E-guide Low-Carb Dieting and the Waterfall Diet.

Water Retention Diet is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. Swollen Legs Feet Ankles | Causes and Treatment
2. Water Retention In Legs

Swollen legs feet and ankles are caused by water retention. When your circulation has problems working against the effects of gravity, your blood collects in the lower part of your body. The extra pressure on your blood vessels makes them leak fluid into the tissues of your legs feet and ankles. This causes swelling, and your skin can become very discoloured;  in severe cases your skin may even weep fluid. Large veins on the surface can become swollen and painful – a condition known as varicose veins.

The technical name for this condition is “chronic venous insufficiency” (CVI) but not all swollen legs are caused by CVI. Get your legs checked by a doctor just in case you have a heart or kidney problem, which can also cause water retention in legs feet and ankles. Swollen legs are also common in pregnancy and are caused by the pressure of the baby on the veins in the pelvis.

Another condition which can cause swollen legs (as well as swelling in other parts of the body) is idiopathic cyclic edema (ICE). ICE occurs mostly in young women after sitting or standing for a long time. Idiopathic simply means “of unknown cause”.

Diuretic Medicines

The best treatment for swollen legs  feet and ankles due to a heart or kidney problem is diuretic medicines. These will normally be prescribed by your doctor. If your heart and kidneys have a clean bill of health, then be very wary of taking diuretics. With both CVI and ICE, the fluid that leaks from blood vessels into the tissues carries protein with it. This protein sits in the tissues, drawing water out of your blood. If you take diuretics, you will also urinate more, leaving your blood dehydrated. Your body will adapt by producing hormones which slow down urination,  and this aggravates water retention and makes the swelling worse.

“I haven’t seen my legs this small in a long time”

Exercise is important to prevent swollen legs, and your doctor has probably already recommended wearing support or compression stockings. But what is not so widely known is that CVI and ICE can often respond very well to eating the right foods. There are many foods which can help to strengthen the blood vessels in the legs and start to break down the proteins which have leaked into your tissues. Avoiding certain foods can also reduce levels of histamine in your body. Histamine tends to increase the “leakiness” of blood vessels and to aggravate water retention.

Based on these principles, British naturopathic nutritionist Linda Lazarides has designed a diet specifically to release water retention. Known as the “Waterfall Diet” it involves following a plan which takes 2-3 months and has had many good reports. The instructions for the Waterfall Diet can be found in the book of the same name, available from Amazon.com or from Amazon.co.uk.

Swollen Legs Feet Ankles | Causes and Treatment is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. Water Retention Diet
2. Water Retention In Legs
3. Water Retention in Pregnancy