When we think of clogged arteries, most of us think about the heart. “But buildup of fatty plaques can happen in any artery, including those that carry blood away from the heart,” says Dr. Samuel Kim, a preventive cardiologist and lipidologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
The arteries that branch out and feed into our arms and legs make up the bulk of what we call peripheral arteries. And the narrowing in these vessels is referred to as peripheral artery disease (PAD), a common condition in which the legs or arms don’t receive sufficient blood flow. “Interestingly, arteries in our legs and feet clog up much more readily than those in our arms and hands,” Kim says. But exactly why that happens remains unclear.
It’s possible to have PAD without plaque buildup in the heart and brain vessels, which are harbingers of heart attacks and strokes. “Even though these diseases can occur separately,” says Dr. Philip Goodney, a vascular surgeon at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., “it is not at all uncommon for these disease entities to travel together.” As a result, patients with symptoms of coronary or cerebrovascular disease will often get evaluated for PAD, and vice versa.
The diabetes connection
In the U.S., nearly 12 million people have PAD, 1 in 3 of whom also have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, according to the World Journal of Diabetes. While data is insufficient to show if either type is more concretely linked to PAD, “Type 2 diabetes is more common, simply because there are more Type 2 diabetic patients,” Kim says.
There are risk factors for peripheral artery disease beyond diabetes: being older and having high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease all elevate the chances that someone will be diagnosed with PAD. “But smoking and diabetes are the top two,” says Dr. Aaron…
Source : time
