Unfortunately, as we all age, our risk of having problems with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) increases. Typical symptoms of PAD occur with walking. In most cases it begins with pain or cramping in the calf muscles and it usually occurs when walking. The distance that you walk before it happens can vary between people but it is predictable in the individual. If someone has PAD and they get pain after walking 3 blocks, then they can count on it happening as they reach the end of the third block. That distance will increase slightly if they are walking downhill and decrease if they are walking uphill.
The reason is supply and demand in the muscle of the calf. The supply is generally provided by the blood vessel. With PAD these is some degree of obstruction to the supply chain. When you are resting the demand in the muscle is at its baseline. early stages of PAD there is enough flow to meet the demands at rest. When you start to walk and use the muscles the blood vessels in the muscles open up to feed the area oxygen. because of the supply chain obstruction, the supply cannot keep up with the demand. When we are talking about muscle activity and oxygen delivery the end result is anaerobic metabolism. This occurs when the muscle is working beyond its oxygen level and the by product is lactic acid. This acid built up results in pain, burning, cramps. The treatment for this pain is to stop walking for a few minutes and the acid will wash out. Once the pain is gone I recommend you continue walking right into your doctors office to get this checked out!
