You wouldn’t believe it, but my pitting edema was so bad that I could press on my ankle and see a clear dent.
I wasn’t very old back then. I wasn’t on any drugs. But I didn’t know it yet; something was extremely wrong.
In earlier images, my face seemed round and almost puffy. At the time, I didn’t realize this was more than simply a cosmetic issue. If your face appears wide and puffy, it could signal that your blood sugar is too high or too low. Those troubles with my blood sugar produced a lot of health problems for me, like my legs and ankles often swelling.
If your lower legs, ankles, or feet are swollen, you should be worried. Edema is what this is. You may have been told that you have a kidney ailment, a heart problem, a liver problem, or that you eat too much salt. Those things can be reasons, but I’ve found out that there’s a much more common one, and the good news is that it’s easy to fix.
Let me tell you what’s going on with your body and how to treat it quickly, safely, and without using any harmful medicines or diuretics.
What is edema, to begin with?
Edema is swelling that happens when fluid becomes stuck in your body’s tissues, generally in the lower legs, foot, or ankles. It could feel heavy, tight, or even hurt. In really bad situations, pressure on the skin might leave a dent that lasts (pitting).
Here are some of the explanations individuals provide online:
The heart stopped working
Kidney issues
Sick liver
A lot of salt
Some medicines
But there’s something else that most people (including doctors) don’t think about…
The Real Problem: Cellular Pumps That Aren’t Working
Inside your body, each of your cells relies on tiny mechanisms to control fluid, especially the sodium-potassium pump.
You have these little pumps all over your body. They push sodium out of the cell and pull potassium in, which keeps the right quantity of fluid inside and outside the cell. When these pumps cease operating, fluid spills out and collects in the spaces between your cells. This is what makes your ankles and legs swell.
Imagine what would happen if the sump pump in your basement stopped working and water started to flow in. This is what happens to cells when these sodium-potassium pumps cease operating.
They don’t function because you eat too much sugar.
Blood sugar levels are high, glycation is high, and swelling is high.
Eating sweets or refined carbs raises your blood sugar levels. That sugar doesn’t just sit there and do nothing. It attaches to proteins in your blood, such as hemoglobin, which is the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells.
This process of binding is called glycation.
Glycation is when sugar molecules attach to proteins in the blood.
This is what the A1C test looks for. A1C is the average amount of sugar that has been “stuck” to your blood cells for the last three months.
Sugar sticks to the proteins in your blood and won’t come off. It stays there for roughly three months, until the red blood cell dies. This buildup makes it tougher for nutrients to go where they need to go, affects your circulation, and inhibits blood from flowing.
Because your circulation is bad, fluid builds up in your lower body, especially in your ankles and feet. It also causes your blood vessels to leak, which enables fluid move into nearby tissues.
More Sugar = More Swelling
Eating more refined carbs raises your blood sugar levels and makes glycation happen more. As time goes on:
The blood doesn’t do a good job of getting oxygen and nutrients to the body.
Liquid starts to flow out of the containers.
The edema in the feet and legs gets worse.
When nerve damage develops, your feet may feel numb, tingle, or burn. This is called peripheral neuropathy.
If you eat a lot of carbs, are close to being diabetic, or aren’t really “diabetic,” this procedure could already be bad for you.
That was me. I didn’t realize I had a problem until I started to show indicators of it.
The Three Most Important Nutrients That Can Help
To get rid of the swelling, we need to fix the sodium-potassium pump in your cells. To do that, your body needs three important nutrients:
1. Potassium
Potassium is crucial for keeping fluids in balance and for the nerves to work right. This mineral is also used the most by the sodium-potassium pump.
You need a lot of potassium, though—about 4,700 milligrams a day. And most people don’t even come close.
Let’s break that down:
Around 300 milligrams of potassium are in a banana.
You would need to eat more than 15 bananas a day to accomplish your target, which is too much sugar.
Potassium-rich foods:
Avocados with leafy greens, including spinach and kale,
Berries
Electrolyte powders without sugar
2. Magnesium
Magnesium and potassium work together to generate ATP, which is the body’s main energy molecule.
It is crucial for:
Loosening up the muscles
Making cramping less painful
Helping blood move
Giving the sodium-potassium pump the power it needs
You just need 400 to 420 mg a day, but most people don’t get that much.
Here are some good sources of magnesium:
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Leaves on greens
Almonds
Supplements that are of good quality (don’t buy ones that have extra ingredients)
3. Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
This is the most important supplement for keeping edema from happening because of sugar damage.
Vitamin B1 helps your body use carbohydrates. You can’t get energy from sugar without it. Instead, sugar builds up and produces glycation.
When you don’t get enough B1:
Sugar makes your blood thicker.
Fluid leaks out of vessels.
The nerves start to hurt.
It could be hard for you to move your hands and feet.
And here’s the worst part: sugar lowers the amount of B1 in your body. So, the more carbs you eat, the less energy you have, which makes the cycle worse.
Here are the best places to get B1:
Nutritional yeast that doesn’t taste sweet
Sunflower seeds
Beef liver, asparagus, and B1 vitamins, especially benfotiamine, which the body can use more easily.
The Real Answer: Stop the Sugar and Help the Pumps
This is what worked for me and what might work for you as well:
Step 1: Stop consuming sugar and refined carbs.
This includes:
Soda, juice
Cereal, bread, and pasta
Sweets and pastries
Snacks that have been through a process
The swelling went down in a few days after I stopped eating these.
Step 2: Put in additional magnesium, potassium, and B1. I used:
A powder that has magnesium and potassium in it and doesn’t have any sugar in it
Every day, eat nutritional yeast (for B1)
Benfotiamine is a B1 supplement.
Nuts, berries, avocados, and leafy greens
In a week, my ankles looked smaller. The pitting was gone in two weeks. The tingling and numbness in my feet also started to fade.
A Final Word About Staying Safe
If you start eating sugar and refined carbs again, the swelling will come back. Your body will start to hold onto water again when the sodium-potassium pumps break down again.
This method isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about understanding what your body requires to function properly and giving it what it needs.