what would casue water retention and ankle swelling?

Question

im an active 39 yr old male i dont drink or smoke so why am i experiancing this?

i do not consume alot of sodium. i walk and run acouple of miles 4 days a week and untill recently was involved in bodybuilding. i do have HBP

Answer 1

Diseases of the heart, the liver or the kidney could cause this.

Water retention and ankle swelling makes me think you may be low on a protein in your blood called Albumin.

Albumin is a protein that helps to keep water in the blood stream - drawing it in by osmosis.

If you are low on albumin, you may lose water to your tissues (hence ankle swelling, fluid in the lungs, fluid in the abdomen)

You may be low on albumin because
- you are urinating it out - renal disease - is your urine frothy when it hits the toilet?

- you are not making it well - liver disease / poor nutrition

the heart disease bit causes liver disease and hence poor albumin production, but also heart disease by itself can impede the veins bringing blood back to the heart - blood may be pooling in your ankles and hence you lose fluid out into the tissues again.



All of these are serious things.

Go see a doctor.

[Edit]

Excessive salt in the diet would cause you to retain fluid, but usually by itself should not cause ankle swelling.

An otherwise healthy 39yo male could have heart disease of the following kinds:

valvular heart disease - from an infection or born with it
cardiomyopathy - born with it (usually)

right sided heart failure (causing water retention and ankle swelling) may arise from pulmonary hypertension - for example if he was to have multiple small pulmonary emboli (perhaps congenitally predisposed)

Answer 2

Have you checked in your families medical history if something like this has been an issue. It could be possible too that you hurt your ankle without even noticing and thus now is producing swelling and the water retention. I would go to a specialist to have that looked at before it gets worse.

Answer 3

I badly sprained my ankle about 3 weeks ago. I was in a hurry going down the stairs, lost my balance and landed on a bad side of my left foot, causing my left ankle to be stretched going on the inside. The first 48 hours were excruciating and the pain was un-believable. I've never had a serious ankle injury before.

So I immediately treated it using the RICE method. The following day, the bruising and swelling were so horrible. I found out that I got a second degree sprain and immediately panicked after that. I had a football game on that week and it been looking forward to it because I've been training for rt. I had teammates that had similar injuries and it took them months to fully recover, some of them stopped playing altogether. So I kinda had a short-term depression because I can't imagine myself not being able to run and play sports anymore.

Because I was so desperate to recover again, I contacted a lot of people that I know who do sports and asked them if they had similar injuries. One friend of mine, from the boy's football team in my university, told me about H.E.M. Ankle Rehab. I got a copy 4 days after I got injured. I immediately read and followed what was instructed and felt improvement on the first day. I was able to walk a bit, but I was in pain.

A couple of days after that, the swelling and bruising were subsid-ing significantly and on the fourth day, I was walking comfortably again. Although I've had felt a bit of stiffness, I continued doing what was instructed. My sister was surprised that I have recovered this fast. I told her about this book and was shocked on how effective the procedures were. I'm just so happy that this book was shared to me and how effective it is.

Heal your ankle fully & fast?

Answer 4

There could be any number of things causing your body to do this. The first thing that pops into my head is kidney/liver dysfunction, or possibly a congestive heart proble,. But I am basing this on all of the old sick people i know. At the very least, make sure you are hydrated.

Answer 5

Since you don't drink, Gout is probably not the cause. Sounds like Edema, which can be triggered by many things. Please see the site below for a full list of what triggers this, along with the underlying causes of Edema, which can range from vericose veins, to heart issues, or problems with your liver.

Answer 6

You are probably severely dehydrated...Do you spend a lot of time outside or involved in an extreme physical activity? Drink some Powerade. Sit or lie down with your feet above your heart. If this does not resolve the problem, please call your physician.

Answer 7

Heart and kidney failure come to mind, but i had ankle edema due to a medication. Also if no other symptoms, vein thrombosis or varicosities and lymphatic obstruction must be considered.

Answer 8

I have experienced this with a lot of patients who have heart disease, but I doubt that an active 39 yr. old would have heart disease. Do you eat an inordinate amount of salt?

Answer 9

well im not a doctor but i do know that a couple possible causes could be diabetes or some type of heart condition possibly an allergy of some sort..................definately contact a doctor imediently!!!!!!!

Answer 10

excessive salt in the diet is another possible cause