How to Get Rid of Swollen Ankles Fast with 15 Home Remedies

Swollen Feet and Ankles: What Causes Them and the Best Natural Remedy

Written by Montoya Sigafoose, founder of Home Remedy Shop · Medically reviewed by Veronique Claes d’Erckenteel, D.C., chiropractor since 1991 · Last reviewed: 27 October 2026

Except for when you’re pregnant, swollen feet and ankles come down to one thing: fluids having a hard time moving around. Fluid leaks out of the small blood vessels and doesn’t flow back, so it pools in your feet. An Epsom salt foot bath might give you a bit of relief, but it’s not going to the root cause. The main swollen feet remedy is to clean out your gut, with a lemon, chia, turmeric and soursop bitters drink and a psyllium breakfast, to avoid fried food at all times, and to keep your fluids moving by raising your feet, walking and cutting salt. Get medical help straight away if only one leg is swollen and painful, or if the swelling comes with shortness of breath or chest pain.

Swollen feet (edema) are very common, especially after a long day on your feet, a flight, in hot weather or later in life. Most of the time they’re harmless and go down overnight. But swelling that keeps coming back is your body telling you something. In this guide you’ll find what causes swollen feet, why your gut matters, my two gut reset recipes, whether Epsom salt helps, and 10 quick relief tips. For more foot care, see our guide to home remedies for calluses, or browse all our natural home remedies.

Table of Contents

• What Causes the Swollen Feet?
• Swollen Feet After Flights and Hot Weather
• Swollen Feet Edema: Why Your Gut Matters
• My Gut Reset Drink
• The Gut-Friendly Breakfast
• Avoid Fried Food at All Times
• Epsom Salt for Swollen Feet
• Swollen Feet Remedy: 10 Quick Relief Tips
• Swollen Feet and Ankles in Pregnancy
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Causes the Swollen Feet?

Your blood vessels constantly let a little fluid out into your tissues, and your body constantly takes it back in, through the small veins and the lymph vessels. Swelling (edema) happens when more fluid leaks out than flows back. There are four reasons that can happen (Scallan et al., Capillary Fluid Exchange, 2010):

• Too much pressure in the blood vessels: standing or sitting for hours, heat, weak leg veins, extra weight, or a heart that doesn’t pump well.
• Too little protein in the blood: the protein albumin holds fluid inside your vessels. It drops with kidney disease, liver disease, severe malnutrition, or a gut that loses protein instead of absorbing it (protein-losing enteropathy).
• Leaky vessel walls: inflammation, injuries, burns and allergic reactions make the vessel walls let more fluid through.
• A blocked lymph system: the lymph vessels drain the extra fluid; when they’re damaged or overloaded, it stays (lymphedema).

Everyday triggers for swollen feet and ankles include long periods of sitting or standing, long flights, hot weather, a salty diet, hormonal changes before a period, pregnancy, extra weight, and some medicines, including some blood pressure and diabetes tablets, hormones and steroids (Perry, 1994). Medical causes include vein problems, heart failure, kidney and liver disease, an underactive thyroid and blood clots (Trayes et al., 2013).

Swollen Feet After Flights, Long Days and Hot Weather

Sitting still on a long flight or standing all day lets fluid sink into your feet, and heat widens your blood vessels so more fluid leaks out. This kind of swelling affects both feet, feels tight rather than painful, and goes down overnight with your feet up. Walk the aisle every hour, do ankle pumps in your seat, drink water instead of alcohol, and wear loose shoes or light compression socks.

Swollen Feet Edema: Why Your Gut Matters

Apart from pregnancy, swollen feet edema is literally just fluids having a hard time moving around. And one of the most overlooked reasons is the gut:

• Protein: your gut is where the protein that holds fluid in your blood vessels is absorbed. A gut that doesn’t absorb well, or loses protein, lowers that protein, and fluid leaks into your tissues (Scallan et al., Capillary Fluid Exchange, 2010; Saey et al., 2026).
• Inflammation: an irritated gut feeds inflammation throughout the body, and inflammation makes the vessel walls leakier.
• Salt: a salty diet makes your body hold water, and in animal studies high salt also made the gut lining leakier (Villela-Torres et al., 2024).
• Fried food: eating a lot of fried food changes the gut bacteria in a way linked to obesity and heart and metabolic disease (Duan et al., 2025), all causes of swelling.

So the main thing you should do is clean out your gut. For more on the gut, see our guide to healing your gut naturally and how to heal a leaky gut.

My Gut Reset Drink

There’s an amazing mixture you can make at home. It will clean out your gut and give you a reset.

• Lemon: chop up one lemon and put it in a pot of water to heat.
• Chia seeds: add a tablespoon of chia seeds.
• Turmeric: add a tablespoon of turmeric.
• Black pepper: add a pinch of black pepper, which helps your body absorb the turmeric.
• Soursop bitters: add 2 splashes of soursop bitters.
• Drink: let it cool to a drinkable temperature, stir, and drink it slowly, chia seeds and all.

Why it works: chia seeds are rich in soluble fibre that feeds your good gut bacteria and keeps things moving (Al-Younis et al., 2025); curcumin, the active part of turmeric, calms gut inflammation and supports a healthy gut microbiome (Pu et al., 2026); lemon adds vitamin C and makes it easy to drink more fluid. Bitters are traditionally used to stimulate digestion.

Safety: use soursop bitters in small amounts and not every day for long periods: heavy, long-term soursop use has been linked to a Parkinson-like nerve disorder in the Caribbean (Caparros-Lefebvre, 2019). Skip soursop and large amounts of turmeric if you’re pregnant, have Parkinson’s disease, take blood pressure or blood-thinning medicines, or have gallstones. Drink plenty of water with chia seeds.

The Gut-Friendly Breakfast

Another great recipe is your breakfast:

• A tablespoon of raw psyllium powder.
• A cup of organic apple juice.
• A pinch of English sea salt.
• Chopped fruit of your choice.

Stir the psyllium into the apple juice with the pinch of salt, drink it straight away before it thickens, and eat your chopped fruit with it, or stir it all together into a bowl. Psyllium is a soluble fibre that softens stools, feeds the gut bacteria and supports a healthy gut (Kumar et al., 2026). Start with a teaspoon if you’re new to it, drink an extra glass of water, and take it at least 2 hours apart from medicines, because it can slow their absorption. For more on fibre and keeping things moving, see our guide to natural laxatives and prebiotic foods.

Avoid Fried Food at All Times

When it comes to gut health, you should avoid fried food at all times. Fried food irritates the gut, changes the gut bacteria and is usually high in salt. Also cut back on:

• Processed and ready meals, crisps and fast food (hidden salt).
• Sugar, white bread and pastries.
• Alcohol.
• Too much coffee.

Fill your plate instead with vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

Free guide

Feed your gut, move your fluids

Once you’ve reset your gut, what you eat every day keeps it calm. Our alkaline diet list is full of the fresh, fibre-rich, unfried foods that support your gut and help your body balance its fluids.

• The best alkaline foods by food group
• Swaps for fried food, salt and processed snacks
• Easy gut-friendly meals for every day
• A gentle start, no strict rules

Get the alkaline diet list

Free guide on Home Remedy Shop.

Epsom Salt for Swollen Feet

Epsom salt for swollen feet might give you a bit of relief, but it’s not going to the root cause. A warm Epsom salt foot bath relaxes tired feet and feels good at the end of the day, but how much magnesium your skin absorbs from it is still debated (Gröber et al., 2017).

• Half a cup of Epsom salt in a foot bath of lukewarm or cool water (hot water can make swelling worse).
• Soak for 15 minutes, then put your feet up.
• Test the temperature with your elbow if you have diabetes.

Swollen Feet Remedy: 10 Quick Relief Tips

While you work on your gut, these tips get the fluid moving again and bring quick relief.

1. Put your feet up

Gravity pulls fluid down into your feet; lifting them lets it flow back.

• Lie down with your feet above the level of your heart for 15 to 20 minutes, 3 times a day.
• Put a pillow under your calves at night.

What the research says: Leg elevation is a standard, effective way to reduce leg swelling (Chadwick, 2022).

2. Move your calves

Your calf muscles are the pump that pushes fluid from your feet back up to your heart.

• Walk for 30 minutes a day.
• Every hour you sit, do 20 ankle pumps and ankle circles.
• Rise up on your toes and down again, 20 times.

What the research says: Weaker calf muscle pump function is linked to more severe vein problems in the legs (Ghorbanzadeh et al., 2025).

3. Don’t sit or stand still for long

Long periods of sitting or standing are the most common everyday cause of swollen feet and ankles.

• Get up and walk around every hour.
• On flights and long drives, walk and do ankle exercises regularly.
• Don’t sit with your legs crossed.

4. Light compression socks

Compression socks gently squeeze the legs so fluid can’t pool in the feet.

• Light (class 1) compression socks for long flights, standing jobs or tired legs.
• Put them on in the morning, before your feet swell.
• Ask your doctor first if you have diabetes, poor circulation or heart problems.

5. Drink enough water

It sounds backwards, but when you don’t drink enough, your body holds on to fluid.

• Sip water all day; herbal teas count.
• Swap sodas and too much coffee for water.

6. Less salt and caffeine

Salt makes your body hold water, and a salty diet also stresses the gut lining.

• Cut processed food, crisps, ready meals and fast food: they hold most of the salt.
• Season with herbs, lemon and spices instead.

7. Massage towards the heart

A gentle massage helps move fluid out of the feet and ankles.

• Use a little oil, and stroke firmly from your toes up towards your knees.
• 10 minutes in the evening with your feet raised.
• A few drops of grapefruit oil in a carrier oil add a fresh scent.

What the research says: Manual lymphatic drainage reduced fluid and sodium in the tissues in a recent MRI study (Nöll et al., 2026).

8. Cool water and contrast baths

Cool water narrows the blood vessels and soothes hot, swollen feet.

• Soak your feet in cool water for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Or alternate 3 minutes warm and 1 minute cool, 3 to 4 times, ending with cool.
• Test the temperature with your elbow if you have diabetes.

9. Ginger and lemon water

Ginger and lemon support digestion and circulation, and lemon water is an easy way to drink more.

• Grate fresh ginger into hot water with a slice of lemon.
• Drink 2 to 3 cups a day.

10. Dandelion, coriander seed or barley water

Traditional natural diuretics that help the body release extra water.

• Dandelion leaf tea, 2 to 3 cups a day.
• Coriander seed water: boil 2 teaspoons of seeds in a cup of water, strain and drink.
• Barley water: simmer a handful of barley in water for 30 minutes, strain and drink.

What the research says: A dandelion leaf extract increased how often people urinated in a small human study (Clare et al., 2009). Don’t combine natural diuretics with water tablets or lithium without your doctor.

Related foot guides: sore feet, burning feet and numbness in hands and feet.

Swollen Feet and Ankles in Pregnancy

Pregnancy is the exception: swollen feet and ankles are normal, especially in the third trimester. Your body holds extra fluid, and your growing baby presses on the large veins of your pelvis. Put your feet up, sleep on your left side, walk every day, drink enough water, wear comfortable shoes and avoid standing for long. Skip the soursop bitters, large amounts of turmeric and herbal diuretics during pregnancy. Call your midwife straight away for sudden swelling, especially of the face and hands, with a headache or blurred vision.

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes swollen feet?

Fluid having a hard time moving back out of your tissues. Common triggers are long sitting or standing, heat, salt, pregnancy and some medicines; medical causes include vein problems and heart, kidney or liver disease.

What is the best remedy for swollen feet?

Clean out your gut with fibre-rich drinks and breakfasts, avoid fried and salty food, and keep your fluids moving by raising your feet, walking and doing ankle pumps.

Does Epsom salt help swollen feet?

It might give you a bit of relief and relaxes tired feet, but it doesn’t treat the root cause. Use lukewarm or cool water.

What is swollen feet edema?

Edema is fluid trapped in the tissues. In the feet it shows as puffy skin, tight shoes, and sometimes a dent when you press the skin.

Can a gut problem cause swollen feet?

Yes. A gut that absorbs protein poorly or loses protein lowers the protein that holds fluid in your blood vessels, and gut inflammation makes vessels leakier.

Why is only one of my feet swollen?

Swelling in one leg can be an injury, an infection or a blood clot. See a doctor the same day, especially if the calf is painful, warm or red.

When should I worry about swollen feet and ankles?

When the swelling comes with shortness of breath or chest pain, is in one leg only, appears suddenly in pregnancy, or doesn’t go down overnight.

How do I reduce swollen feet fast?

Lie down with your feet above your heart for 20 minutes, do ankle pumps, soak your feet in cool water and massage upwards towards your knees.

Does drinking water help swollen feet?

Yes. When you’re dehydrated, your body holds on to fluid. Drinking enough water and cutting salt helps it let go.

Recommended

• Home Remedies for Calluses
• Healing Your Gut Naturally
• The Alkaline Diet List
• More natural home remedies

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montoya sigafoose

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