To prevent peripheral arterial disease (pAVD), attention must be paid to reducing individual risk factors.
Behavioral risk factors
- Diet
- Micronutrient deficiency (vital substances) – see Prevention with micronutrients.
- Consumption of stimulants
- Tobacco (smoking) – relative risk of smokers for pAVD was more than twice their risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and apoplexy (stroke); for pAVD risk, it took about 30 years to return to normal; for CHD risk, after twenty smoke-free years and apoplexy risk normalized within five to twenty years.
- Psycho-social situation
- Negative stress at work increases the risk of severe pAVD in a similar way to apoplexy (stroke) and myocardial infarction (heart attack)
Prevention factors (protective factors)
- Statins (lipid-lowering drugs) cause a reduction in the incidence (frequency of new cases) of peripheral arterial disease (pAVD).
