Question 13: How does age and getting older impact upon your Lymphoedema?

Jane Wigg RGN, MSc is a Lymphoedema Clinical Expert and Regularly Answers L-W-O Community Member Questions

LWO Community Question - Answer Jane Wigg LTA - Video and Graphics, Mary Fickling PhysioPod UK

How does age and getting older impact upon your Lymphoedema?

Firstly, what a blessing that we all get older- every day, no matter what your circumstances, be thankful and grateful that we get to see a new dawn.

However, as we age and our bodies get older, they stop being as efficient as they used to be. This could be through not pumping blood effectively around your body and getting oxygen to the right parts, or it could be arthritis meaning that you are not as active as you used to be, and we know that activity is good to help the circulation and lymphatics.

As we get older we will find it more difficult to apply our compression garments, our fingers may not grip as much, and it may become much more difficult to carry out your self-lymphatic drainage.

Because you are not as active as you could be , you may have  pooling of fluid around your legs and in the skin, and  the lymphatic may not be so good at draining that away.

However, not all is lost, the best way to grow old better is to stay within a healthy body weight, eat healthily and stay as active as you can for as long as you can. Cleans your body by drinking enough water and ensure you get enough sleep for your body to naturally regenerated itself…
Heres hoping you live to a happy, healthy, ripe old age.
‘till next time

Question 13: Ageing and Lymphoedema

Jane Wigg

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