What causes your feet to swell when you drive?

Question

What causes your feet to swell when you drive?

Answer 1

Poor circulation for one, and can cause some major problems.

I use Australian Bush Flower Essences Travel essence when driving long distances or flying to prevent problems.

Did pretty good on a 36 hour travel time from Australia (Sydney to Ottawa Ontario Canada) though there was a 5 hour lay over, but we sat at the cafee and had some tea, to tired for anything else.

"Australian Bush Flower Healing" by Ian White

ISBN-10: 073380

Yahoo email group discussing Australian Bush Flower Essences

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ABF...

Answer 2

Foot, leg, and ankle swelling is common with the following situations:

Prolonged standing

Long car drives without stretching exercises

Long airplane flights or automobile rides

Menstrual periods (for some women)

Pregnancy -- excessive swelling may be a sign of pre-eclampsia, a serious condition sometimes called toxemia, that includes high blood pressure and swelling

Being overweight

Increased age

Injury or trauma to your ankle or foot

Swollen legs may be a sign of heart failure, kidney failure, or liver failure. In these conditions, there is too much fluid in the body.

Other conditions that can cause swelling to one or both legs include:

Blood clot

Leg infection

Venous insufficiency (when the veins in your legs are unable to adequately pump blood back to the heart)

venous stasis or pooling of the blood from prolonged horizontal postioning

Varicose veins

Burns (including sunburn)

Insect bite or sting

Starvation or malnutrition

Surgery to your leg or foot

Certain medications may also cause your legs to swell:

Hormones like estrogen (in birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy) and testosterone

A group of blood pressure lowering drugs called calcium channel blockers (such as nifedipine, amlodipine, diltiazem, felodipine, and verapamil)

Steroids

Antidepressants, including MAO inhibitors (such as phenelzine and tranylcypromine) and tricyclics (such as nortriptyline, desipramine, and amitriptyline)

That is the extensive and lengthy answer.  The short version is due to gravity.which causes your venous blood to pool at the lowest periphery which are your legs from non-movement. and stretching exercises.

Answer 3

There are large veins in your legs that carry blood to and from the feet.  When you sit in the seat, it may be possible that you're restricting the blood flow.  Try sitting on a pillow or changing seat position.

Answer 4

the reason your feet swell is because you're not moving around - if you sit in your chair doing work and not get up for the same amount of time the same will happen.  You need to stop every few hours and get out of your car and walk around so that the blood can start moving again