Is Your Edema Hard?

​If your edema is hard and you don’t have any internal disease, there is a possibility of a generalized (both sides and all of the body) edema called idiopathic edema occurring from an unknown cause.

A typical edema usually occurs related to some abnormality of internal organs such as kidney, heart or liver, but this type of edema occurs without such abnormality.

Idiopathic edema is a disease that the mesh between the blood vessels and the cells becomes larger, leading to the leakage of more fluid from the blood vessels to the cells.

The characteristics of idiopathic edema are:

• The edema is hard and doesn’t become dented when it is pressed.

In a typical edema, since the mesh between blood vessels and cells is small, only water leaks out to the cells, so the edema is soft and stays dented when it is pressed with fingers. On the other hand, in idiopathic edema, the mesh is large so proteins and other substances also leak out to the cells, making the edema hard and less dented.

• The difference of the weight within a day is more than 3 lbs.

The inside of the blood vessel is insufficient of water due to the leakage. If a doctor prescribes a diuretic drug which encourages urination, considering your edema as a typical edema, taking a diuretic drug increases the amount of urine temporarily, but the inside of the blood vessel becomes even more insufficient of water. To compensate water in the blood vessel, your body tries to pull back the water into the blood vessel, reducing the amount of urine. As a result, swelling becomes worse and weight gains.

• There was mental stress when the edema occurred.

According to a theory, if various kinds of mental stress stimulates the pituitary body in the brain, a special hormone that makes the mesh between the blood vessel and the cell large is secreted.
​
There is no specific medicine for idiopathic edema. It is important to reduce the stress you are holding.