Why Your Legs Have that Pins-and-Needles Feel
You’ve been lethargic for days with little appetite and you keep feeling pins and needles in your lower limbs. The first thing you feel you need to do is to use a search engine in order to diagnose your own malady. Don’t do that. Scary things are on the internet and if you read enough of it, you’ll find that you are this close to dying from six different diseases! Don’t panic, but don’t disregard your symptoms either. Chances are, you are suffering from a vitamin deficiency rather than a terminal illness. As a medical and dental practice management consultant, I know that both my doctor and dentist clients advocate the use of vitamins to their patients in their medical and dental marketing campaigns. Both will tell you that vitamins are vital for the body for optimal function and health. When your body is lacking vitamins because your diet isn’t supplying it with what it needs, a lot of health problems arise that otherwise could have been avoided.
The most common causes for vitamin deficiencies are a poor diet consisting of junk food, alcoholism, stress, not taking any vitamins or vitamin supplements and/or a medication that could interfere with how your body would normally process vitamins to its best advantage. A visit to your doctor will determine if a vitamin deficiency might be the root cause of exhaustion or stress. He might advise you to make changes in your diet that would include an increase of Vitamins A, B1 and B2 .
Foods rich in Vitamin A include dark leafy greens, yams, carrots, dried apricots and cantaloupe. Foods to choose to increase B1 intake, also known as Thiamine, include legumes, sunflower seeds and yellow tuna. To boost your B2, or Riboflavin, vitamin levels try foods such as almonds, hard cheeses, mackerel and liver pate. Your doctor might also advise you to take additional OTC vitamins and supplements after meals, but will caution you not to overdo amounts for the sake of overcompensating for what you previously lacked. You’ll know these vitamins are working to your benefit if your lips cease being chapped all the time, you no longer feel pins and needles throughout your legs and feet and you feel less stressed.
Even if you are the poster child for following a healthy diet, you might be one of those individuals who still needs to take vitamins and supplements in order to ensure that your body is getting what it needs to run efficiently, which, overall helps your own mental and physical productivity.
Your doctor, while giving you the big talk on vitamins, probably has told you to look for dietary supplements that contain vitamins B6, B12, D and E and…drum roll…folic acid. The vitamins aid in fighting cancers and protect your cardiovascular system. It is also not a bad idea to get your dentist’s input at your next dental consulting appointment to find out which vitamins will maximize your oral health.
It is but a small investment needed to purchase and take vitamins on a regular basis in order to reap a huge return in your overall health. Vitamins are easy to find. Grocery stores and health food stores carry them as well as online retailers. While vitamins are not terribly expensive to acquire in the first place, check your local grocery store circular flyer for additional discounts and savings. It is important that you provide your body with a wholesome, natural diet and the additional vitamins that might be lacking in order to ward off disease and exhaustion so that you can enjoy a happy, active and healthy life.