Health Question

[DanishBeauty]

Am I the only person that gets terribly swollen feet and ankles by the second day on a cruise? What's weird is it doesn't happen any other time. I try drinking a lot of water but nothing helps. by the end of the week i can not get any shoes on my feet. Help!

Any suggestions?:confused::mad:

[seamama1]

Am I the only person that gets terribly swollen feet and ankles by the second day on a cruise? What's weird is it doesn't happen any other time. I try drinking a lot of water but nothing helps. by the end of the week i can not get any shoes on my feet. Help!

Any suggestions?:confused::mad:

 

It can be caused by a change in routine, not enough activity (too much time laying around in a lounge chair and drinking fu-fu- drinks). Also, heat and humidity can cause the body to retain fluid along with all that food.

 

Try walking a big more, up and down stairs...maintaining some sort of activity. Promise yourself you will use the treadmill in the health club everyday for 10 or 15 minutes....

 

If all else fails, some physicians will prescribe a diaretic for you.

 

Also, if you tend to perspire heavily, try to keep up your salt intake which will lead to more water and will help keep things moving along.

 

My feet tend to swell on long flights - over 4 or 5 hours. I try to get up every hour and walk up and down the aisle, do a few stretches, touch my toes, leg isometrics - like that!

 

Some folks have this problem and others don't. Strange, isn't it?:p

[spirit rev]

My feet really swelled after our cruise, particularly on the flight home--hardly got my shoes back on. This was the first time this has happened to me. I figured it was because the ship's food had a lot more salt in it than I normally cook with. (This is true for most food I eat outside the home.) Plus, I have to wonder if the drinking water has a bit more sodium in it than what I have at home because it is de-ionized salt water.

 

When I was a practicing nutritionist, I kept advising folks to keep drinking lots of water if they were consuming a lot more sodium than they were used to so the water didn't build up in the body. Exercise also helps.

[ladycaveat]

Drinking all that water (unless it was bottled) might have been the problem. On my last cruise . . . for the first time ever . . . my feet and ankles looked like they were about to pop! I mean we're talking sausages. It was so bad that I ended up going to the ship's doctor. Turns out . . . it "could have been" (my doctor at home said she was sure it was) because of the water on the ship. Not just the water but anything made with the ship's water. It was the first time I didn't buy bottled sodas and bottled water. To save a few dollars, I decided to drink nothing but the ships water (which tasted great), lemonade and iced tea (made with the ships water). I was told that even though the water had been "desalted" (is that a word?) there was still enought salt in the water (not to mention the food) to cause one to retain fluid. And boy did I retain fluid! Better believe next September . . . I'm not drinking anything that doesn't come in a bottle.

[DesrtDrmr]

A lot of people will disagree, but I agree with the above posters. My feet, hands, ankles and legs use to swell unbeliebably when on a cruise. It was kind of scarey.........like I was going to pop! The last few cruises, we have taken bottled water, and I did not have that problem. I DO drink a lot of water, and try to stay away from caffeine and sugar, so water is my main drink. We would take a couple of six packs, and then buy more in port. Just make sure the tops are sealed on the bottles you buy in port. We have also bought bottled water on the ship, but it is so much more expensive than buying it at a store. If it were the same price, or even close, we'd buy it onboard. Maybe the cruiselines would rather not stock tons of bottled water. :)

[Cotton]

Danish - I had that problem on only one cruise. (Fortunately, I take along a mini-medicine cabinet for just-in-case stuff.):D Sodium-Free Diurex capsules once a day worked well for me.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

I have the very same problem with swelling on cruise ships, but it isn't just my feet. My hands swelled and I even felt that my face had swollen. I couldn't even wear the shoes I brought for formal night. It was very scarey this last cruise because it was the worst ever. Yet, lo and behold, two days after the cruise all the swelling had magically disappeared!

 

Unlike what one poster here said, it wasn't from too much lying around or fufu drinks. Hubby and I always seem to "cruise to exhaustion." My pedometer each day registered nearly twenty thousand steps. The only day I sat around was at Labadee and I had to sit because by that time the swelling was so bad it did impact my ability to walk. Getting my feet up seemed to help a small amount.

 

I think I will try the advice of the poster above who mentioned a diuretic pill. I also agree with the poster whose doctor told her the desalinated water used on the ship is not 100% salt free. As I usually consume a very low sodium diet, I am probably very sensitive to even minimal amounts of sodium and suffer from the generalized edema I have on cruise ships.

 

One last point. I wonder if this couldn't be dangerous for some passengers who have heart conditions. Swelling up like that can't be good. It even made it very hard for me to breathe and I don't even have a heart condition.

[LizaMM]

I swell up like crazy on a cruise also!! I have actually felt so awful from it that for a moment......I actually wondered why I love to cruise so much.....but that thought lasted only a moment:D

 

I always move around a lot on a cruise....I walk the ship and take the stairs all the time (except sometimes in my formal gown :) ), I walk in port and although I don't visit the gym I do like to walk the running track in the morning....and of course there is all that dancing I do every single night in the disco!! So I knew that exercise/moving around was not the issue for me.

 

Last cruise I went on I decided to bring along some over the counter diuretics to see if this would help. It did seem to make a difference the first few days but I still swelled.

 

After reading your tips about the water I am thinking that this definetly contributes to the problem! I drank more bottled water on the beginning of that cruise than I did as the week went on. I also do not eat much salt in my normal diet.

 

I am thinking that a combo of the diuretic as well as consuming as much bottled water as possible might just be the trick!!

[momofmeg]

Am I the only person that gets terribly swollen feet and ankles by the second day on a cruise? What's weird is it doesn't happen any other time. I try drinking a lot of water but nothing helps. by the end of the week i can not get any shoes on my feet. Help!

Any suggestions?:confused::mad:

 

I see the folks have told you-even though the ocean water has been put through a process so it is drinkable-not all the sodium is removed. So not only water, but coffee, ice tea, anything not bottled will be giving you the salt.

 

My problem is my mid section area more then my ankles! even though I watch what I eat and do not over eat-this happens to me. The good thing is by the time I am home a week I am back to normal.

 

On person who posts on the fashion board alot-gjules-says she always buys a case of bottled water which she carries on board-that way she saves on buying that pricy stuff on ship.

 

My last cruise I noticed all of the crew bringing back gallons of water on board in Key West. I wondered why they were so concerned with the water. then later a post about this was on the fashion board and I learned-and here I have taken 11 cruises and did not know this!