What are Varicose Veins?
Veins are entrusted with the immensely important task of sending blood back to the heart. Leg veins are aided in this task by two things. Firstly, physical activities like walking act almost like a pump and push the blood back up through the legs. Secondly, perforators come into play, helping send the blood on its way from the superficial veins to the deeper veins. It is in situations when the perforators don’t work to the best of their ability and blood is unable to flow back to the heart that leg veins begin to bulge and veins spider, becoming swollen and twisted.
What are the symptoms?
Besides the obvious physical symptoms like swollen veins or the fact that veins spider, people with the condition exhibit symptoms like swollen ankles, a dry or itchy sensation in the areas surrounding the varicose veins, cramps upon standing up after a long time, wounds in the leg region that take a long time to heal, discoloured skin and so on.
Other conditions that could occur simultaneously, alongside varicose veins, include the appearance of spider veins and small white scar like patches that become visible around the ankles. Legs feel heavy and may ache more than is normally the case after a long run or a lot of physical activity.
Other conditions which could occur include Superficial Thrombophlebitis, which is a result of blood clots in the veins closer to the skin while Deeper Vein Thrombosis is a condition that affects the deeper veins and is a lot more dangerous.
What are the treatments?
There are quite a few things you can do within the comfort of your own home to ease the pain and increase your comfort levels. For starters, elevating you legs can help ease the pain. Wearing compression stockings reduces swelling and improves circulation, while anti-inflammatory medication like aspirin can help with superficial thrombophlebitis.
Regular exercise, whether it be in the form of walking, swimming or bicycling can help with the pain and reduce risk simultaneously. Experts recommend walking for a minimum of thirty minutes every day. However, it is advisable that you concur with your physician before you begin an exercise program. Your overall physical health and things like your blood pressure or whether you have arthritis all need to be taken into consideration before you start an exercise program. If you stand for long periods of time as part of your job, shift your weight from one leg to another every once in a while. Try your best to sit down now and then.
As far as more advanced treatments are concerned, varicose veins can be dealt with either surgically or non-surgically. If the surgical route is chosen, exactly which surgery is to be done is determined after a lot of tests are performed. Other factors that can come into play include what medications you are on, family history, whether or not you are pregnant and so on. Popular surgical techniques when it comes to varicose veins include litigation/stripping and phlebectomies.
On the other hand, when the point of interest is a smaller vein, sclerotherapy (the injection of chemicals into the vein in question) is the popular choice.
Some of the more recent developments in the world of medicine include laser therapies which involve using laser energies to scar and cut off the veins in question.
What puts you at risk?
There are a variety of elements in your day-to-day life that can help you determine beforehand whether or not you are susceptible to varicose veins. Being female and or repeatedly pregnant puts you at risk. Varicose veins are much more likely to be a condition faced by women than men. Getting older or being overweight are also major determinants when it comes to increased risk of varicose veins.
