A new study published by New England Journal of Medicine suggests that patients who have cramping leg pain symptomatic of peripheral arterial disease(PAD) may benefit from walking a little while longer, even as the pain persists.
Kerry J. Stewart, Johns Hopkins University, Director of Clinical Exercise Physiology said that patients with PAD often experience pain during exercise, so they stop, which makes them unfit and they become housebound or dependent. He suggested that PAD patients with claudication should walk until they reach a moderate level of leg pain and then continue for several minutes longer as this appears to increase muscle metabolism and endothelial function, though not beneficial in increasing blood flow to the limbs.br>
