Heavy and thick legs can be quite annoying. The cause is often accumulated water. We show you simple tips that you can use to drain your legs!
Water retention is a super uncomfortable problem. They usually make your legs look undefined, puffy and thick. Sometimes they can even be really painful and your health can suffer.
Especially in the warm months, swollen legs are very annoying. You want to wear a nice summer dress or new sexy shorts, but your deposits keep you from doing so? Or do you even have physical complaints?
We will show you the causes behind the annoying water retention and more importantly, how you can easily drain your legs!
Believe me, once you get rid of the excess water retention, you'll definitely feel a lot better. And that's why we're getting started right away.
Table of contents
Why should you drain your legs?
Your body consists of up to 70 percent water. So it is part of our organism.
However, if too much water accumulates in the tissue or is not sufficiently removed, the tissue swells. You will notice this, among other things, through your thick and swollen legs. It also often affects the abdomen, face or fingers.
Technically, these water deposits are called edema.
Negative consequences are weight gain, pressing of shoes and pants or rings that no longer fit.
For most healthy people, temporary edema is still harmless.
However, if you suffer from long-term water retention, it may be a sign of a disease or an unhealthy lifestyle. Then you should definitely talk to your doctor about it and possibly drain your legs.
By draining your legs, you can increase a sense of well-being and shed kilos quite quickly.
You can support your body with herbal drainage tablets. The basis is nettles, which have a draining and flushing effect. The big advantage with drainage tablets made from herbal ingredients is that you don't taste the herbs. Most dehydrating teas have a pretty blatant taste of their own. Mostly they are bitter and do not motivate to drink more of them.
What are the causes of water retention in legs?
All kinds of fluids flow through your body. Besides your blood circulation, there is another circulation that is responsible for this - the lymphatic system.
In this system the lymph (tissue fluid) is transported and viruses, bacteria and cell residues are eliminated. A healthy lymphatic system is therefore important for your vitality.
If it is disturbed, water can back up and accumulate. This is how water retention occurs. The legs are among the most frequently affected. We will tell you how you can drain your legs in a moment.
Edema can have many different causes. We are only scratching the surface now.
Here are the most common causes of water retention:
- Overweight and too little exercise, standing/sitting too long
- Circulatory or lymphatic drainage disorder
- Hormone imbalances due to menopause, pregnancy, PMS, diabetes or hypothyroidism.
- Metabolic and organ diseases such as cancer, kidney weakness, or heart and liver disease.
- Taking medications such as cortisone, pain relievers, contraceptives, or other hormones.
We would like to point out again that you should seek medical advice if you suffer from water retention for a longer period of time.
If you want to drain your legs, various tricks can be helpful. You can read about them now.
These teas dehydrate the body!
Drain legs - this is how it works naturally and easily
We have good news: legs can be drained with simple means.
Once your doctor has given you the go-ahead, you can start draining your legs. Often, home remedies or just tiny changes in your everyday behavior patterns can help.
By draining your legs, you can take some pressure off your joints and naturally make your legs look slimmer again.
We've put together our top six tips to help you dehydrate. Here we go.
6 effective tips to drain your legs
Through targeted draining, you can effectively help your body get rid of excess water and get rid of those pesky swellings. And this is how it works:
Healthy diet drains your legs
There are some foods that contain minerals and vitamins that can actively help drain your legs. You may know it from asparagus? When you've eaten your portion, you're drawn straight to the toilet.
Especially food with a lot of magnesium and vitamin B6 or that is rich in potassium boosts the drainage.
These include
- Avocado,
- Pineapple,
- Potato,
- Asparagus,
- Natural rice,
- Berries,
- Tomato,
- Celery
- and artichoke.
Our tip are flax and coriander seeds. Flaxseed* bind liquids and help to remove them fairly quickly. Like coriander seeds, they also have an anti-inflammatory effect, which helps to reduce swelling.
From Flaxseed* you can make really delicious muesli or even
You should avoid excessive consumption of alcohol, sugar, salt and coffee. Unfortunately, these things make your body retain more water.
For example, carbohydrates, including sugars, are stored in the body as glycogen. For every gram of glycogen, three grams of water are stored in the body. Avoiding carbohydrates and sugar for a few days can significantly help to dehydrate your legs.
How to detoxify your body in 7 easy steps!
Exercise and sports to get rid of water
Pretty close: You can simply sweat out the excess water. So exercise, exercise and exercise again. When you exercise regularly, you loosen accumulations in the legs. Your muscles virtually suck the water out of the tissue.
This way, the swelling will eventually turn into a big muscle. Your legs will be drained and you will not look so bloated. You will notice that your legs are less heavy and tired.
Sports like jogging, cycling or swimming are especially good. I love to swim and it always helps me very well when I have the feeling of heavy legs.
When swimming you have a double positive effect, because the water pressure from the outside additionally acts on your body. It is like a kind of compression stocking for the swelling.
Sometimes it even helps to just get up and walk a few steps in the office routine.
A balanced lifestyle can prevent edema
Sufficient sleep can be really healthy and make. During sleep, the so-called sympathetic nerves in the kidneys are activated, which control water balance. Healthy kidneys are important for detoxification of your body. So sleeping in can help drain your legs.
Stress is rarely good for you. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to live stress-free. At least that's how I feel.
Reducing stress is already a good step in the right direction. Stress increases a hormone that is also responsible for regulating the water balance. So give yourself a break more often.
Drink the right thing to drain your legs
Drinking a lot to dehydrate your legs may sound contradictory at first, we admit. But it works and is probably the easiest way to reduce swelling in your legs.
Drinking virtually flushes the excess water out of your organism. If, on the other hand, you drink too little, your body tries to store the remaining water. You should drink two to three liters of fluid per day in any case.
You're best off reaching for natural water or teas.
Certain types of tea really get the water cycle going again. These include green tea, birch leaf tea and nettle tea. It should not be boring with this selection of drinks in any case.
Massage, alternating showers and care to drain the legs.
A pleasant massage with fascia rollers, massage balls or rose quartz rollers can activate blood circulation. They not only feel good, but can also help drain the legs. The lymphatic system is stimulated and removes excess water.
The same applies to alternating showers, which also stimulate metabolism and blood circulation.
Be sure to stroke in the direction of the heart when massaging so that the fluid is delivered in the right direction.
There are also some ointments, such as horse chestnut ointment, which can help with thick and swollen legs.
elevate legs so that they drain
Put your legs up for a while and do nothing? Sounds super tempting. In this case, gravity does its work and makes the legs drain and decongest. If you inhale and exhale intensively, you can support the drainage of fluids even more and thus drain your legs.
If you like to get your body even more under control, you can stretch and flex your feet to stimulate some sort of pumping action.
Overnight, you can put a pillow in bed with you so that you can relieve the pressure on your legs and lie down slightly elevated. There are special vein pillows for this purpose.
Drain legs - this is what you should avoid
If you want to do something about water retention in your legs, there are certain things you should avoid.
Not moving for hours is unfortunately one of the most common causes of water retention. Sitting or lying down for long periods of time happens to all of us, whether it's in the office, at university or when flying. When you don't move enough, blood pools in your legs and the fluid from it can enter your tissues.
It is important that you use breaks actively. Go for a walk, do yoga or other fitness exercises that are not too strenuous. In this way, you can possibly prevent excess deposits. And you do something for your athletic fitness.
In addition to lack of exercise, high heat is also a no-go. This is because the heat causes the blood vessels in the skin surface to swell. Long visits to the sauna, hot baths and cakes are rather unfavorable if you have a tendency to water retention. We would advise you against them, especially if you are trying to dehydrate your legs anyway.
Unfortunately, the consumption of too much alcohol and coffee can also further aggravate water retention. Here the motto is: enjoy but in small quantities.
Our conclusion
Bye-bye heavy, thick and swollen legs! Dehydrating legs is not that difficult. You'll be doing yourself and your joints a real favor if you get enough exercise and watch what you eat.
If you notice that the water retention does not disappear after some time, you should have it checked by your doctor.
Once your legs are dehydrated, you can feel great in your summer dress and really enjoy the warm days. Have fun!
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