Unpacking the Causes of Poor Circulation in Your Feet

If you’re still having cold feet in this heat, it could be a warning sign of an underlying circulation issue. It’s important to understand that poor circulation isn’t a disease itself, but rather a symptom that points to various underlying health conditions affecting how blood flows to and from your feet. We at New Jersey Podiatric Physicians & Surgeons Group unpack the causes of poor circulation in your feet.

Peripheral Artery Disease

One of the leading causes of poor circulation in the feet is Peripheral Artery Disease, which we’ve covered in previous blog posts. It’s when arteries in the legs and feet become narrowed and hardened due to a buildup of plaque.

This reduced blood flow means your feet and ankles aren’t getting enough oxygen, which leads to common symptoms like pain or cramping in the calves or feet during activity. Smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and older age are major risk factors for PAD and damage to the heart-foot connection.

Diabetes

Diabetes: another poor circulation culprit. Consistently high blood sugar levels over time can directly damage small blood vessels throughout the feet, making them leaky and less efficient.

But there’s a lesser-known effect: it actually accelerates plaque buildup, which worsens PAD. This occurs along with nerve damage, which makes it hard to even feel all of this happening.

Chronic Venous Insufficiency

While PAD is about arteries bringing blood to the feet, Chronic Venous Insufficiency is about veins struggling to take blood away from them. You have tiny valves inside your leg veins that prevent blood from flowing backward.

But when they become damaged, blood pools in the veins of the lower legs and feet. This leads to persistent swelling, skin discoloration, itching, and tired, achy legs and feet. CVI usually gets worse with prolonged standing or sitting, and can sometimes be a lingering effect of deep vein thrombosis, which we cover next.

Deep Vein Thrombosis

A sudden cause of poor circulation is a blood clot forming in a deep vein (most commonly in the leg). A DVT can partially or completely block blood flow, which can cause pain, swelling, warmth, and redness in the affected leg and foot.

While less common, a piece of this clot can break off and travel to the lungs- something we call a pulmonary embolism. Yes, a swollen foot (among other respiratory symptoms) could indicate a clot in your lungs.

Smoking

The chemicals in cigarette smoke damage the walls of blood vessels and cause them to constrict. Anything like this is eventually going to affect the feet, because they are the farthest from the heart.

If you’re worried about your foot pain, come see the expert team at New Jersey Podiatric Physicians & Surgeons Group. With more than 30 locations, from Newark, NJ, to Cape May, NJ, we value convenience and excellent service for our patients. To schedule an appointment, first find a podiatrist in your area.