Arterial occlusion, as the name implies, means that the artery is blocked and not accessible. Any tissue in the human body needs normal blood circulation to supply nutrients and oxygen, if the corresponding artery is occluded, tissue ischemia and hypoxia will form, causing tissue dysfunction and even tissue necrosis. Coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and cerebral infarction (cerebral thrombosis), are all the result of this. In the lower extremities, that is, in the legs, arteries can also become occluded, which can cause the corresponding symptoms. As the severity of the disease progresses, it can be divided into four stages, each with different symptoms that can have different effects on daily activities and life. In the first stage, the distal end of the affected limb, or foot, will experience a decrease in temperature and the pulsation of the arteries in the foot (dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial artery) will appear diminished or disappear. However, this stage is often unnoticed and therefore rarely detected. In the second stage, intermittent claudication occurs. It means that after walking a certain distance, there will be trapped pain in the calf muscles, or suffocating pain, and it is necessary to stand in place and rest for a while (a few minutes), and then you can continue walking again, and then walking the corresponding distance, there will be trapped pain in the calf again. This distance from the beginning of walking to the appearance of calf muscle pain is called the limping distance. This stage takes longer to develop, and the more severe the ischemia, the shorter the claudication distance, which can develop from hundreds or even thousands of meters to only a few tens of meters, often over a period of several years. When the claudication distance is relatively long, it is less easily detected, for example, the claudication distance can be more than 500 meters, while it is rarely necessary to walk that far normally, or in older patients, who usually have other diseases of the legs, when intermittent claudication appears, they think it is due to an old problem and do not think about new problems, and there are also misdiagnosed as lumbar disc herniation (sciatica). Many patients present to the clinic with a limp of about 100 meters, and their condition is already relatively severe. In the third stage, resting pain appears. The so-called resting pain is pain in the foot even when not walking. At this time, the limp distance is only a dozen meters, or even a dozen steps, and the pain in the foot occurs even when lying down, and it is slightly better when sitting up, because the position is lower and the blood supply will be slightly more. Resting pain is especially pronounced at night, so that by this stage, patients often have trouble sleeping all night and sit with their knees bent over their feet. Some patients cannot even have a moment of complete sleep for several months in a row, causing great pain to the patient. In the fourth stage, tissue ulcers appear. Ulcers, in fact, are distal tissues, such as on the foot, where tissue necrosis occurs due to ischemia, forming ulcers that do not heal for a long time. At this time, resting pain is further aggravated. As a result of maintaining a posture day and night (sitting with the knees bent and holding the feet), over time, joint stiffness occurs and the knee joint cannot be straightened. And the pain that the patient suffers at this time is already unimaginable to the general public. The most common cause of arterial occlusion in the lower extremities is atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis of the lower extremities, like coronary heart disease and cerebral atherosclerosis (insufficient blood supply to the brain), is part of the systemic atherosclerosis. Nowadays, with the change of diet, living habits and social rhythm, the occurrence of atherosclerosis also tends to be younger, and some people even start to show symptoms of atherosclerosis at the age of 40 or 50, including intermittent claudication of the lower limbs and even coronary heart disease. Therefore, the prevention of lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusion is consistent with the prevention of atherosclerosis. Chinese medicine has a very graphic phrase – control your mouth, open your legs. It is diet control and exercise, eating less high-fat and high-cholesterol food, eating more vegetables, and exercising appropriately can effectively prevent the occurrence and development of arteriosclerosis and delay the development of arteriosclerosis. If there is a high blood lipid condition, mainly cholesterol, including total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, and high risk factors, such as parents or siblings with similar diseases, then oral lipid-lowering drugs are needed under the guidance of a doctor to control the development of atherosclerosis. There are two main methods of treatment for lower limb atherosclerosis occlusion, one is conservative treatment, that is, oral medication and infusion, which is suitable for patients with mild disease, such as limping for a distance of several hundred meters or more, without much impact on daily life, and the blood circulation disorder does not threaten the survival of the limb. Another method is surgery, through open surgery or intervention (which is commonly referred to as stenting or minimally invasive), to reopen the occluded artery and restore the patient’s blood circulation for the purpose of relieving symptoms and preserving the limb. When the disease develops to the fourth stage, the arterial occlusion is often so large and severe that there is no surgical condition at all or surgery is very difficult and ineffective, and the patient is in pain day and night, unable to eat and sleep, and finally ends up with amputation. In addition, patients with lower limb arteriosclerosis occlusion, who are also part of systemic arteriosclerosis, should also pay attention to the existence and development of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular arteriosclerosis, and actively take appropriate preventive and therapeutic measures.