How Cardiovascular Labs of America Is Teaching Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease To “Walk Away From Leg Pain”

More than 18 million older Americans have a disease that can cause excruciating pain even when walking short distances.  Most are unaware they have Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) without an easy and painless computerized test.  Without detection, a person has a 6X higher risk of a heart attack or stroke.

PAD is caused by a buildup of plaque in the blood vessels that nourish the legs . The reduced blood flow means that not much oxygen can get to the muscles, and that causes pain, sometimes so debilitating that it’s a struggle to get through everyday activities.

There are number of ways you can unblock the block. A Surgeon can thread a tube into your artery and inflate a balloon to help move the plaque aside. Or a stent can be inserted, which will permanently prop the artery open. Or the surgeon can take a blood vessel from elsewhere in your body and create a little detour — a bypass — so that the blood can just flow around the blocked passage.  Those three are all invasive, and often indicated in severe cases.

Read Also : Leg Pain May Be A Potential Sign Of Peripheral Artery Disease

It’s Time To LEAP Back Into Life!

You can also improve Leg Pain and heart health without removing the blockage, studies have shown — all you need is a supervised exercise therapy program. Current research shows that consistent, structured and therapeutic movement helps the muscles adapt to the amount of blood they are getting.  As a result, the vascular system grows more tiny blood-carrying vessels that helps with flow.  In fact, a 2015 study showed incredible results like LEAP (Leg Exercise Atheroma Program) that had the same results of ability to walk as those who had surgery with a stent placement.  Medicare was so impressed with the results, they created a new code to pay for a program modeled after LEAP that is one of the first vascular rehab programs in the country.

We understand walking is already painful with calf cramps, heavy legs and cold toes and feet.  Our LEAP team is led by a world renown Cardiothoracic / Vascular Surgeon and his expert team of Exercise Physiologists who help determine just how much time you should spend on the treadmill and at what level of difficulty it should be set.  Although we never push you past your limits, we do help encourage you to achieve new goals that at first may be uncomfortable and frightening to do on your own without a clinical team.

LEAP is located at three Dallas locations to better serve our patients.  For additional information, please contact us at 972.483.5714 or visit us on our website at www.cvlofamerica.com.