Leg heat therapy offers simple remedy for disease that causes pain while walking

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —

A new therapy developed by Purdue researchers may help to address a disease that causes pain in leg or hip muscles while walking, eroding mobility for an estimated 236 million people worldwide. The disease often goes untreated, but, in a clinical trial, researchers are hoping that leg heat therapy, delivered at home using hot-water-circulating pants, may improve walking tolerance in people with lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD).