Your Feet Are Warning You — Here’s What the Swelling Really Means
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are your feet and ankles swelling every evening? Discover why your ankles swell at night and how to relieve edema in the legs and feet naturally by addressing the root cause.
0:00 Introduction: Why feet swell in the evening
0:50 Common swollen feet causes
2:04 The real reason why feet swell
3:21 Potassium and swollen ankles and feet
4:28 How to eliminate edema symptoms
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Your arteries deliver oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, while the venous system returns it to the heart. Fluid retention in the feet is often due to an issue with the venous system.
Liver and kidney damage can contribute to fluid retention in the feet. Many people are told swelling is caused by sitting or standing too long or venous insufficiency, and are often given diuretics or advised to follow a low-salt diet. This treats the symptom, while ignoring the root cause.
When insulin levels are too high, the body retains sodium, leading to fluid retention. Carbohydrates raise insulin, making this a key driver of swelling. A high-carb diet can create a “metabolic sponge” effect, showing up as edema in the feet and ankles.
If you don’t address your diet, it will be difficult to resolve swelling in the legs and feet. To address the root cause, focus on lowering insulin levels, reducing eating frequency, and increasing potassium intake to help reduce fluid retention and support healthy circulation.
Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, age 61, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals and author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.
Disclaimer:
Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients, so he can focus on educating people as a full-time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Let's talk about why your feet and ankles swell every single evening and exactly how to fix it. |
| 0:05.1 | I had this problem for a decade. I didn't really know what it was back then. But back then, even in my |
| 0:10.5 | early 30s, I would press into my lower part of my leg and it would leave a dent. That's called pitting |
| 0:16.2 | edema. So today I'm going to show you exactly what's behind that and how to fix it. It's so easy. When you do a search on edema and your lower extremities, sometimes you're going to see vericose veins. You're going to see a lot of other terminology, which is very confusing. So let me just explain what the veins are. Vains are the other half of the circulation. So you have arteries that go from the heart |
| 0:38.7 | that push your blood down to your feet and your fingers and up to your head. Then it crosses |
| 0:43.1 | over through these little capillaries into the venous system. And the venous system returns the |
| 0:48.7 | blood up to the heart. And when you have a problem with the venous system, you can get a pooling |
| 0:52.9 | effect, of fluid. |
| 0:54.5 | There's other causes of edema as well, like your liver, for example, can be damaged. |
| 0:59.9 | And your liver makes certain proteins that help hold the blood in your arteries. |
| 1:04.6 | And when you don't have the protein in your arteries, you actually have certain parts of the blood |
| 1:09.2 | that can ooze out through the circulation |
| 1:11.5 | into the tissues. And when the kidneys damage, you can also lose protein and create that same thing. |
| 1:18.4 | So a lot of people ask me, what supplements do I recommend? Now, of course, I'm not biased of my own |
| 1:23.4 | high-quality supplement line, but if you go to Amazon and type Dr. Berg supplements, |
| 1:28.5 | you'll find more information. And a lot of people blame fluid retention on standing too much or sitting too |
| 1:34.9 | much. But that doesn't really explain edema because certain people stand for many, many hours |
| 1:39.7 | at work and they never get edema. Certain people sit in a chair in front of a computer for many hours |
| 1:45.8 | and they don't always have edema. Some people do and some people don't. When the patient goes to the |
| 1:51.8 | doctor with this condition, they're told they have venous insufficiency and they're put on a |
| 1:56.8 | diuretic to push the fluid out. They're also told to go on a low salt diet. Both of these |
| 2:02.8 | treat the symptom. There's something else going on at a root cause level. And that is something |
... |
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