Heart Health
When walking leads to leg pain
It might be peripheral artery disease, an underrecognized and potentially dangerous condition.
If you notice a painful cramping sensation in your calf when you walk, you might blame a cranky knee joint or write it off as a sign of aging. But this symptom may signal a more serious condition, known as peripheral artery disease, or PAD.
PAD occurs when fatty deposits clog the arteries outside of the heart (most commonly in the legs) and reduce blood supply in that part of the body. The hallmark symptom is leg pain that occurs with exercise, called intermittent claudication (from the Latin word claudicatio, meaning "to limp").
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