Your heart leg pain can signal trouble.(CR Health)

Have you ever had the pulses in your feet checked by a doctor? You should, especially if you experience pain in your calf muscles when you walk.

By feeling for your foot pulses, a doctor can detect whether blood is flowing freely in your legs or moving sluggishly through arteries clogged by cholesterol. Clogged leg arteries not only put your limbs at risk but also usually go hand in hand with clogging of the arteries leading to the heart and brain, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Everyone over 50 who smokes or has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, and all people 70 and older should have the pulses in their feet checked at every physical exam.

Some doctors undervalue screening for the condition (peripheral artery disease) or simply don't want to spend the extra time it takes. As a result, many doctors omit the test from their routine exam, and experts estimate that about half of the 8 million to 12 million Americans who have the disease don't even know it. "That should be seen as a national scandal," says Alan T. Hirsch, M.D., director of the vascular medicine program at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.

Equally troubling, even when peripheral artery disease is diagnosed, physicians often don't treat it properly.

PAINFUL LEG MUSCLES

Many patients ignore the telltale signs of peripheral artery disease, mistakenly attributing the leg pain it can cause to aging or other problems. You should ask for testing if you have the following symptoms of the condition:

* The gradual onset of pain or cramping in calf muscles that worsens when you walk and eases when you stop.