Decreasing Water Retention

Suffering from water retention or edema? Need to get rid of the excess water by decreasing water retention, or want to jumpstart your body to do so? It’s not that hard – and you can even explore doing it yourself, without needing to see a doctor or professional.

Edema can be both unsightly and can be hard to manage, especially if you are active or need to be on the go quite a bit. If one’s body is retaining water, certain parts of the body will retain more water than others, most especially the lower extremities – the feet, calves, ankles, lower legs – although edema can also take place in one’s hands, arms and even the face. Some serious or more severe cases can result in tingling sensations in certain areas, dark discoloration, and flesh that, when squeezed or touched, can take a while to return to its original shape before it was touched or squeezed.

Firstly, to treat this condition, there are a number of over-the-counter medicines that can be bought if you would like to try to drain excess water from your system. You can try to take Pepto-Bismol, sodium bicarbonate or calcium carbonate, all three of which can be purchased without a prescription at any drugstore.

Next, check out your diet. Are you fond of food that’s high in salt, like certain types of dried or preserved meat, soy sauce and the like? If so, that may be a contributory factor to your edema. If one’s body contains a high level of salt, one has a high chance of suffering from edema, because high levels of salt can stimulate the body’s tissues to swell and withhold water. You can remedy this situation by reducing your salt intake – eating less salt-preserved food, reducing soy sauce and other salty items, and so on.

Thirdly, if you are suffering from lower-extremity edema, there are a few things you can do to help reduce the water in your lower legs, ankles or feet. A few times a day, if you can, remove your shoes, loosen your clothing and put your feet up. That way you can make gravity, which is what is causing your problem by drawing the excess fluid downwards in your body, work for you. You can let gravity pull the excess fluid down and out of your feet and legs and into the rest of your body.

Lastly, if you are healthy enough, you can try to exercise, or if you are already exercising, you can always try to increase the tempo, speed or overall duration of your exercise (only do this if your body can take it that is – you may need to ask a trainer for some assistance). The trick is to get your body to speed itself up – speed up your metabolism, your heart rate, perspiration rate, rate of circulation, and so on. Doing so will have the effect of removing fluid from your body at a far faster rate than it is entering it.