This is a modified post from my other thread. Thread: Let your food be your medicine

I hope turning it into its own thread helps someone.

Randomly, I developed a clot in November (deep vein thrombosis - technical name) in my leg. According to the ER doctor and the Vascular Surgeon, they have no freaking idea why they happen. Yay, modern medicine.

Doctors do know long periods of sitting or standing, travel in planes (hey, sitting!) can play a part. They know that wearing compression socks during times when you aren't moving a lot help prevent them.

Other things that help prevent them are exercise and taking breaks from sitting or standing every 20 minutes. These breaks are not always practical. When driving 4 hours (or more), are you going to pull over ever 20 minutes to walk for 5? Probably not.

Compression socks help protect against blood clots. During sedentary periods, the pressure from the sock helps keep the blood in the leg moving. These days, it is possible to purchase ones that look like regular socks for men and women, so they aren't the fashion faux pas that they used to be.

Clots do not always hurt. Mine definitely does. Wearing heavy-duty compression socks (with more pressure than required for normal daily wear for prevention) helps me be able to hobble about for short periods of time, two months after the clot developed.

Clots can also the cause of pulmonary embolisms. This can be deadly. My father had a large clot that he didn't know about (because the clot didn't cause pain) until a part broke off and went to his lung. He couldn't breathe and luckily made it to the ER in time. He could have died.

Anyone who sits or stands for long periods of time can potentially save themselves a lot of pain and possibly their life by wearing these. Truck drivers, yes. People who fly a lot, yes. People who work either in front of a computer all day or stand in an assembly line type job, yes.

They aren't expensive and some of them just look like socks. It could save your life.

For the no-linky-you-stinky types: [link to www.webmd.com (secure)]