Anyone deal with PAD

I don't know, and feel uncomfortable even replying to you because....I don't know. But I do know that you can encourage the production of human growth hormone by doing high-intensity exercise, something that sounds really, really, stupid to suggest to someone with your friend's circumstances. I'm just winging it here, but maybe, if he can manage it, even twice a week for 10-15 minutes, his HGH might rise and help to stimulate new blood vessels in his extremities....mebbe? Exercise of any kind does that, but not all exercise, like walking, stimulate a lot of HGH. They just encourage more vascularization to provide the muscles a chance to grow to adapt to the increased burden you're imposing on them if you walk more often and longer.

I hope you get some solid answers, but also that you come back and tell us what you have learned so that we can pass it on.

Thank you for your reply. However, I think if I can convince him to exercise to promote circulation in the legs that would be a big step. High intensity exercise would be very difficult since he has had a stroke in the past & has trouble walking & has cardiovascular disease, severe arthritis & has had 6 total joint replacements. He takes Repatha to keep his LDL below 70. He has reacted with muscle pain with statins & current muscle pain is from PAD but also might be from Repatha, which he feels he has to keep taking.
Thanks again for your response.

I take gabapentin for my PAD and it is a great help! A lot of literature says you have to take it for 2 to 3 weeks before you can feel the effects, but I can take one 300 mg dosage in the morning and within a few hours, I can feel my feet again and my legs are not burning and uncomfortable. Depending upon how uncomfortable I am feeling, I might take another dose around 2 o’clock. By the time I’ve hit my second pill, within a few hours I am pain-free for the rest of the day and able to sleep easily. The doctor prescribed two 300 mg capsules three times a day. I felt like a zombie , and adjusted the dose myself to less than half that. To piggyback on another answer, I am 72 years old and have health issues that have recently cropped up and make it hard for me to walk every day. I’m usually able to do a mile and a half/30 minutes at least three times a week. I’m sure it’s helping something , but it did nothing for my neuropathy. I don’t know why because I thought it would have, but that is my situation. Good luck to your friend! It’s a very uncomfortable thing to be saddled with!

Thanks so much for your suggestion. I am sure my friend will greatly appreciate your suggestion & ask his doctor about it.

I'd like your help with the information you provided. Sorry but I'm a little unclear and I want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Are you saying that walking is not as good for PAD as other types of exercise because it's not strenuous enough? I don't know anything about HGH, but I can certainly read up on it if the knowledge is something that will help with my discomfort. You seem very well informed in the area. I know the gentleman you are trying to help with your post has different circumstances than I, but you said some things that have me wondering if I'm doing the best thing I can to help my situation. I hope this makes sense. If not, let me know. It's late for me but I just happened to see your comments and I don't want to forget to ask the question. Thanks in advance!

Apparently, and this is just what I gleaned from watching a LOT OF videos about Keto, Keto-genic, low carb, preventing muscle mass loss when losing weight on calory-restricted diets, etc., you produce HGH when you really exert yourself strenuously. High-intensity exercise like step ups, burpees, and such, and it has to be sustained for at least 5 minutes, some sources say 10 is better:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12797841/#:~:text=An%20exercise%20intensity%20above%20lactate%20threshold%20and%20for,of%20hGH%20at%20rest%2C%20increasing%2024-hour%20hGH%20secretion.
Walking at a fairly stiff pace can still help, but it won't stimulate HGH production nearly as well as High Intensity exercise does. And the HGH is key to preventing muscle loss when trying to lose weight. The body doesn't first take fat tissue, and then start the autophagy of the muscles when all/most of your body fat has been taken up. Your body finds a way to start breaking up all sorts of tissues, including muscles. As you age, you do NOT want to lose muscles...at all! They help keep you alive, from falling, from downing, from being caught from behind, or dragged off somewhere. It's bad enough that our vestibular systems (balance) get poorer as we age, but losing muscles puts us in that much greater danger of not being able to grab onto something quickly and to keep our heads from banging on concrete if we fall. Or breaking a hip, which after 80 is all but a death sentence for a great many who are still alive at that age.

My thinking is that, if HGH will encourage muscle development, and muscles need both enervation and blood supply for nutrients and oxygen, its stands to reason that stimulating HGH will encourage more vascularization as well, which may...may....slow or prevent further loss of neural mass in the extremities. Again, this is just my thinking, and I haven't looked for, nor found, any research that supports my hopes.