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Physical activity is any body movement that works your muscles, which requires more energy than resting. Examples include walking, running, dancing, swimming, yoga, and gardening. Exercise is a type of planned or structured physical activity.

Living with peripheral artery disease and its symptoms requires ongoing health care and heart-healthy lifestyle changes. Talk to your doctor about taking part in a supervised exercise program, maintain routine foot care and inspection for sores, and take all medicines as prescribed.

Controlling certain risk factors by staying physically active, following a heart-healthy eating plan, quitting smoking, and losing weight if you’re overweight or obese can help prevent or delay peripheral artery disease and its complications. By following these recommendations, you can also prevent and control other conditions associated with peripheral artery disease, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and stroke.

Your doctor will diagnose peripheral artery disease based on your medical and family histories, a physical exam, and results from one or more tests: ankle-brachial index, Doppler ultrasound, treadmill test, magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA), arteriogram, and blood tests.

Many people who have peripheral artery disease do not have any signs or symptoms. When people do have signs and symptoms of peripheral artery disease, they can include intermittent claudication, weak or absent pulses in the legs or feet, sore or wounds on the toes, feet, or legs that heal slowly, a pale or bluish color to the skin, a lower temperature in one leg compared to the other leg, poor nail growth, and erectile dysfunction.

Peripheral artery disease is more common in blacks than any other racial or ethnic group. The major risk factors for peripheral artery disease include smoking, older age, and diseases and conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, coronary heart disease, stroke, and metabolic syndrome.

Atherosclerosis is the main cause of PAD. Plaque buildup in the arteries is called atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a disease in which a waxy substance called plaque builds up on the inner lining of arteries. Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, fibrous tissue, and calcium. In PAD, plaque may reduce or fully block the flow of oxygen-rich blood through arteries to the body’s vital organs and the limbs.

Peripheral artery disease happens when plaque builds up in the arteries that carry blood to your head, organs, and limbs. Plaque buildup leads to atherosclerosis, which limits oxygen-rich blood flow to your organs and other parts of your body. This Health Topic focuses on peripheral artery disease that affects blood flow to the legs.

People living with mitral valve prolapse should receive ongoing care, take all medicines as prescribed, and make heart-healthy lifestyle choices.

You cannot prevent mitral valve prolapse because most people who have the condition are born with it.