Compression Boots

The black puffy zip-up compression boots are everywhere these days, from athletes to actors and actresses to busy corporate employees. But what is the appeal of this new footwear trend?

Compression therapy involves wearing compression boots. Compression therapy aims to improve blood flow to your heart and increase blood flow in your legs. This is done while supporting your veins and reducing swelling. Compression boots deliver deep, relaxing pressure to your legs and mobilize fluid to promote healing. By using compressed air, these boots feel like being massaged deeply. 

Initially, the boots feel like they are cuffing your foot. Still, they are inflated and deflated in segments that mimic the organ's natural muscle pump, increasing lymph circulation and expelling waste products. Let's know all about compression boots.

What is a compression boot? 

A compression boot is an inflatable sleeve for your legs that increases blood flow by filling with air and squeezing. Moreover, you should wear compression boots for as long as your doctor prescribes.

Compression boots: how do they work?

The recovery boots employ a technique known as intermittent pneumatic compression. Their original purpose was to treat patients with lymphedema, pulmonary embolisms or deep vein thrombosis. They've become a common sight in gyms and rehab centres to aid athletes in flushing metabolic waste from their bodies after rigorous workouts. Several major brands are now selling home versions.

The general premise is the same, even if the designs differ from brand to brand: a pump inflates your boots from the toes up, like a tube of toothpaste.

Compression boot function

A dynamic compression system increases blood flow to tired muscles, eliminating toxins produced during exercise and decreasing inflammation from small muscle tears.

Moreover, compression boots improve circulation, reduce inflammation and swelling, and speed up recovery for amateur and professional athletes. Some physicians and companies selling the boots say the footwear increases flexibility, reduces muscle soreness, and prevents injuries.

Scientific Research on Compression Boots Benefits

Compression therapy, especially compression boots, has been the subject of numerous studies examining their benefit to health, well-being, and performance. 

It has been well-proven that pneumatic compression's efficacy helps patients suffering from lymphedema and deep vein thrombosis (in other words, people with poor circulation). However, what about those who are physically healthy? What about athletes at the top of their game? It depends on who you ask.

Using recovery boots daily during exercise "significantly reduced" muscle swelling and other working-out effects, reports the International Journal of Exercise Science. The same journal published another study last year that found that pneumatic compression did not significantly speed recovery for healthy volunteers.

Compression boots do, however, assist many users in recovering their muscles. Moreover, boots are generally easy to use, portable, and feel excellent.

Benefits of Compression Boots

Compression boots for legs provide several benefits, including the following:

1. Circulate better
2. Boost the lymphatic system
3. Eliminate waste products, such as lactic acid.
4. Improve flexibility and range of motion
5. Reduce the time it takes to recover
6. Increase your training intensity faster.
7. Unwind and relax
8. Flexible joints with a wider range of motion
9. Enhance the benefits of your float and cryotherapy session

How to Use Compression Boots

Generally, the harder you work, the more recovery you require. It's typically true that the harder your effort, the more waste, metabolites, and build-up you will need to clear from your cells. You'll experience the benefits of this shoe when you wear it after speed work, after long rides, after century training, or after any other workout that is very taxing. Also, they can be useful if you know you will have two strenuous efforts in a row.

How long should patients wear compression boots daily?

Gradual compression stockings are not effective until they are worn for at least 18-20 hours a day, as have mechanical compression devices. Through mechanical compression, stasis and fibrinolysis decreased.

• Studies have shown that patients receiving intermittent pneumatic calf compression had a lower thrombin/plasmin ratio in their blood samples compared to those not receiving the compression. It demonstrates that intermittent pneumatic calf compression can prevent hypercoagulable states, which contribute to the development of vein-to-vein contact.

• In addition to increased venous blood flow velocity, mechanical compression devices have also increased Tissue Plasminogen - TPA levels. (A protein called tissue plasminogen activator helps break up blood clots. Blood vessel endothelium linings carry this protein. The enzyme converts plasminogen to plasmin, which breaks down blood clots. As a medication, synthetic tPA is used in hospitals to dissolve blood clots in patients who have had heart attacks or ischemic strokes.)

In surgical and obstetrical patients, it is necessary to initiate mechanical compression before the initiation of anaesthesia. It should continue in the post-anaesthetic care unit.

Patients should be allowed to remove mechanical compression devices only for part of the day (no more than 30 minutes) for bathing, exercise, or for nursing staff to conduct skin assessments.

"Physicians should prescribe instructions in the patient's medical record specifying how long and how often mechanical compression devices are to be worn," contends Dr Franklin Michota. The physician would be vulnerable to litigation if the patient developed a DVT or PE without having done so.

Risks of wearing compression boots

A high-pressure setting may result in numbness in your legs. There are, however, no major downsides to using compression boots, even if the science does not necessarily support their use. Investing in something that might feel good but doesn't perform as expected is the biggest risk. 

Contraindications:

You may not benefit from Compression Boots if that is the case. Talk with a physician before undergoing this treatment. If one of these health conditions is present in your life:

• Congestive Heart Failure or Pulmonary Edema 
• Phlebitis - Acute Deep Venous Thrombosis 
• Peripheral Artery Disease
• Recent skin grafts with infected wounds
• Non-Pitting Chronic Lymphedema 
• Pulmonary Embolism  
• Skin inflammations (erysipelas, cellulitis)  
• Atherosclerosis 
• Diseases with active metastatic involvement in the edematous area 
• Truncal oedema or Edema at the Root of the Extremity
• Neuropathy in the Peripheral Nervous System and other related disorders.

However, there is a possibility that results may vary.