Cankles lead to swollen ankles, due to which athletes might find it challenging that their foot is not rightfully striking the pavement. Perhaps it is the ankle part that ensures the careful footsteps. Certainly, cankles are not desirable for the unusual traits it consists of.
Though not medically described as severe for people, an inflamed ankle does not reason for higher self-esteem for sure. Learn the associated medical challenges, causes, symptoms, and required treatments when you have cankles.
What are cankles?
Colloquially cankle is a combination of two words. That is of ‘calf’ and ‘ankle’, respectively. A person with cankles usually has fat ankles and lacks the calf and ankle parts of the feet. While some causes for developing cankles are situational based, others also suffer from kankel because of hereditary traits. But generally, obesity complicates the fat ankle scenario for the worst.
Either ankles or cankles are a blended word for calf and ankles. Kankel is, in a fun manner, referred to as the absence of ankle bones when the foot is straightaway joined with the low legs.
What do cankles look like?
A Cankle appears like thick ankles where the lower side of the feet is inflamed. The ankle looks like an endless trunk or thick pipe, which is humorously denoted as sausage legs. The interesting fact about developing cankles is that they realize their fat ankle quite lately.
Mainly because we tend to ignore noticing ankles more precisely, or others don’t even know what are cankles! So, when they realize their cankle feet feature, it becomes too late, and they feel displeasure about it.
What causes cankles?
Cankles sometimes are hereditary and are often because of complicated medical conditions. Here is a list of points about what causes cankles!
Genetic causes
Genetic features are significant in determining an individual’s structural anatomy. Sometimes, when a child’s parents develop fat ankles, then there are fair chances of having fat ankles, too.
Such cankles often result from excessive accumulation of fat at the calves and ankles region irrespective of how much you exercise regularly or your body weight is normal. There are fewer chances to find a remedy if your cankle issue is hereditary.
In that case, even though you eat less or undergo regular exercise, it also becomes rarely possible to reduce fat from a selected body area.
For women, they can choose to undergo cankle surgery, also known as “ankle liposuction,” which is held in working on the lower leg contour.
Due to pregnancy
Pregnancy results in various bodily transformations both during gestation and also in the postnatal period. Due to a low level of physical activity and diminished blood circulation, cankles become a possible side effect of pregnancy.
The main reason for your kankel’s lumpiness during this period is fluid retention. Thus acting as a side effect for the impaired circulatory system.
However, the good part about thick ankles in pregnancy is their temporal condition. Once the mother delivers the child, all these disappointments with your lower feet region will vanish. If not, it’s best to consult the doctor and ask for the possible treatment.
Due to poor circulation
When you are not pregnant and still facing cankle issues, such conditions can result from excessive fluid retention. Such suffering is often badly encouraged because of poor nutritional ingredients, or you can consume more than normal sodium elements from food.
So, as a precaution, you have to concentrate on your dietary means, or you should intake more green leafy vegetables. Also, if not excessive exercise, then at least sincerely practice 40-45 minutes daily.
The cold region witnesses more diseases associated with poor circulation than normal tropical climatic regions.
Severe chronic venous insufficiency
A person suffering from chronic venous insufficiency often faces problems from swift leg movement. It is because the veins from the legs fail to flow the blood back to your heart.
Such conditions are in contrast to the usual scenario where the valves from the veins would ensure smooth blood flow back to the heart. As a result, you won’t easily figure out the calves and ankles since the blood would get collected or pooled in your legs.
Some of the noticeable venous insufficiency symptoms are
- Heaviness and pain in the foot area.
- Often, you would feel spasms or leg cramps.
- Swelled, dark, and leathery skin in the cankles.
- Bulged veins.
Due to liver diseases
When you face certain liver diseases, the albumin level or body protein reduces. When the body faces the scarcity of albumin, then water usually leaks out from the blood vessels, which ultimately causes swelling in the arms, ankles, and legs.
Kidney failure
The prime role of both kidneys is to drain the waste materials from your body via urine. A damaged pair of kidneys accumulates blood vessels, resulting in bloated body parts like ankles, feet, and face, or swelled whole body.
Due to DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)
When the deep veins from either one or both feet grow several blood clots, then it can impact in the form of Deep Vein Thrombosis. Such disease often causes redness in the leg regions or at least both your feet to get thickened. The extreme condition of such disease is blood clots in the lungs or pulmonary embolism.
Other than these causes, there can be some temporary conditions for having cankles, like sitting with swinging feet for long hours or when your air travels for more than an hour. But such cases get back to normal after some time, and if it does not, then you may be suffering from some complicated diseases like DVT. Consult a doctor then to heal your thick ankles.
Cankles vs Ankles
Cankles meaning is simply a conjoined calf without an easily bounded ankle. It would look like fat ankles and, as a result, is a sign of displeasure for many. On the other hand, your ankles are the thin skeletal joints whose main function is to bridge the gap between the foot and the elongated limbs. With the support of the ankle, we can walk or flex our feet very conveniently.
How to get rid of cankles?
Cankle as a deformed ankle can only be treated when you precisely know the cause of such a structure. Some of the obvious ways to get rid of cankles are –
Start exercising actively
Some of the main workouts, like running, jogging, or even simply walking, persuaded the lower muscles of the legs to contract. While jogging or running, it’s better to run on smooth surfaces such as grass surfaces. You can wear soft stockings or shoes to prevent the chances of stained ankles, making the case more severe.
Exercise is preferable because stretched ankles contribute towards better lymph or blood flow.
Even in cases of venous insufficiency, these lower leg muscles play the role of a secondary heart, which squeezes the veins and returns the venous blood to circulation.
Intake of blood thinners
Due to the lack of proper nutrition in your body, some of the mobile organs of your body, such as feet, ankles, or hand palms, get swollen. So, the intake of prescribed blood thinners restricts the chances of plaque in grown arteries and ensures smooth blood flow and normal blood pressure. Take common blood thinners like warfarin and aspirin on recommendation from a doctor.
The compressed stockings or socks
Compression stockings support your muscles, especially your blood vessels, preventing inflammation or edema and resulting in natural blood circulation. Such compressed stockings are easily purchasable from medical stores or online platforms.
Take an Epsom salt bath.
The swelling in your ankle region is well answered while taking a warm leg bath in Epsom salt. Try the remedy daily, and then, if not completely, at least to an extent, the seedlings will reduce.
Lose weight
An important way to lose weight is by reducing the calorie intake capacity. Daily, try to minimize the calorie intake by 300-500 calories, and ultimately, it will help a lot in the long run. Drinking water and consuming green leafy salad contribute a lot to losing weight.
For obese people, leg joint exercises like cycling and swimming promote enhanced blood circulation and slimmer ankles.
Become picky with heels.
You should wear chunky heels, which create the illusion of slim ankles. But when you choose stilettos, such thinner heels make your ankles look larger. Shoes that cover the heels, like high boots, conceal thick heels and make your legs look long and slim.
How helpful is cankle surgery?
Often women pursue the path of cankle surgery to remove fat cells from the joint region permanently. Cankle surgery or liposuction is a surgical procedure through which the fat cells are removed, which can’t be easily acquired through dieting or exercising. The recovery from cankle surgery is instant, and the doctor would discharge the patient overnight.
The swelling in the operated region is natural for some days, and you can wear a compression garment.
Though liposuction is rarely safe, certain side effects like sweeping, pain, infection, bleeding, or blood vessel damage can occur if done in the hands of inexperienced professionals. Therefore, consult an experienced doctor for undergoing a safe cankle surgery.
Final Words
As of now, you must have known that the medical terminology for cankle is not exactly known. Doctors haven’t cautioned about the danger of fat ankles though it has often been found that cankles have discomfort many in terms of appearance and overall bodily balance. So, you can follow the above remedies to get rid of cankles and opt for the surgery at best.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Answer – Having cankles is usual when you have complicated diseases like kidney failure, venous insufficiency, or liver diseases. However, when someone in your family is facing fat ankles, then, by genes, you also can have cankles.
Answer- Cankles are caused by genetic issues or Deep Vein Thrombosis, liver issues, kidney problems, or pregnancy. Also, when you are obese then, you are likely to build up cankles.
Answer- You are likely to get rid of cankles if you lose weight if you have a heavy body weight. Or take blood thinners and practice exercise regularly. In an extreme case, get rid of cankles with surgery.
Answer- Anyone can have cankles irrespective of how many healthy life practices you follow. Since cankles can occur due to genetic issues, there’s nothing to do with less body weight. But obese people are likely to develop cankles more in comparison to skinny ones.
Answer- Cankles result from the immense build-up of the fat cells or excessive water retention at the ankle region. Therefore, cankles depend on water retention.
