Sitting around the table at the family reunion can be alarming when everybody is wearing skirts and showing off their 30 years of venous reflux. When looking at Grandmas and aunt Mary's legs you may be seeing into the future. There are steps you can take now to avoid that future scenario.
The condition that causes the purple lines on the older ladies legs is called venous reflux. In this condition, blood is allowed to fall back down the superficial veins toward the feet due to the effect of gravity and incompetent valves in the veins. Since blood has a similar density as water it can be heavy.
The greater saphenous vein travels along the inside of the leg from the groin to the ankle. There are no valves in the veins from the groin to the heart so when the valves in the leg go bad there is a column of blood from the heart to the ankle in advanced cases. This can cause pressures in the veins almost as high as the arterial blood pressure. The first thing to happen is usually the pressure in these veins causes the smaller elements of blood, namely water, to be pushed out into the tissue causing swelling. This type of swelling progresses throughout the day and usually resolves after waking up in the morning.
Besides swelling, other wonderful things happen to your beautiful legs. Veins under pressure will reliably do two things; lengthen and widen. These two actions will create the purple wiggly worms - similar to Aunt Mary's legs. The veins have fixed branch points and as the veins and they are fixed at the ends the vein will curl like Christmas Candy. The purple and red spider veins are showing the widening under pressure. The human eye cannot detect normal vein in the skin because they are too thin. As a segment of these fine veins become pressurized they increase in width and the small wedge of the venous network become a spider vein.
All this extra pressure on the veins can cause fatigue, heaviness, swelling, itching, leg cramps, excessive bleeding from a burst varicose vein, skin discoloration and ulceration.
Women are more at risk for venous reflux overall. The risk factors for venous reflux are pregnancy, obesity, prolonged standing or sitting, heavy lifting, family history and bad luck.
The best treatment for venous reflux is to prevent it. In some cases if it is a family tradition that all women in the family must have veins by the time they are 60 years old, then the goal is to put it off until you are 70.
Depending on you lifestyle there are some key things you can do now to decrease your future varicose vein burden.
Compression stockings are the first line of defense. Compression stockings are a great thing for women and men who work standing up most of the time. Postal workers, waitresses, nurses, flight attendants, teachers, and anybody else would benefit from compression stockings. When I am treating patients I recommend 20-30mmHg of compression. If you don't have big veins in you legs yet, a stocking with 10-20 mmHg of compression would be adequate. In my practice I recommend my patients wear them to work and take them off when they get home. Most of the patients who follow this plan report their legs feel better when the go out on the town after work.
Compression Stockings do not cure venous reflux. They do provide control of the consequences of venous reflux and slow the progression of varicose veins
Avoiding Hot baths will decrease the incidence of varicose veins. The heat in the bath leads to vasodilation. The vasodilation will increase the pressure through the vein and can lead to valvular dysfunction.
Dont cross you legs, cross you ankles. The saphenous vein runs on the inside of your thigh and you compress it when you cross your legs. Plus you mother said it was't ladylike!
Other preventive factors include exercise regularly and elevate you legs after exercising for 5 to 10 minutes, Avoid tight fitting clothing, and maintain a healthy weight.
Horse chestnut extract is a herbal supplement found in various vein preparations. Essentially the herb allows the stretched out veins to regain some recoil so they can reduce in size. Some question if this works but the Food and Drug Administration gave this herb the highest recommendation it gives out. This preparation showed some evidence of benefit and need to be further evaluated. I prescribe this for my patients
I treat this condition every day .. These are the nuts and bolts about preventing venous reflux and avoiding the complications
The condition that causes the purple lines on the older ladies legs is called venous reflux. In this condition, blood is allowed to fall back down the superficial veins toward the feet due to the effect of gravity and incompetent valves in the veins. Since blood has a similar density as water it can be heavy.
The greater saphenous vein travels along the inside of the leg from the groin to the ankle. There are no valves in the veins from the groin to the heart so when the valves in the leg go bad there is a column of blood from the heart to the ankle in advanced cases. This can cause pressures in the veins almost as high as the arterial blood pressure. The first thing to happen is usually the pressure in these veins causes the smaller elements of blood, namely water, to be pushed out into the tissue causing swelling. This type of swelling progresses throughout the day and usually resolves after waking up in the morning.
Besides swelling, other wonderful things happen to your beautiful legs. Veins under pressure will reliably do two things; lengthen and widen. These two actions will create the purple wiggly worms - similar to Aunt Mary's legs. The veins have fixed branch points and as the veins and they are fixed at the ends the vein will curl like Christmas Candy. The purple and red spider veins are showing the widening under pressure. The human eye cannot detect normal vein in the skin because they are too thin. As a segment of these fine veins become pressurized they increase in width and the small wedge of the venous network become a spider vein.
All this extra pressure on the veins can cause fatigue, heaviness, swelling, itching, leg cramps, excessive bleeding from a burst varicose vein, skin discoloration and ulceration.
Women are more at risk for venous reflux overall. The risk factors for venous reflux are pregnancy, obesity, prolonged standing or sitting, heavy lifting, family history and bad luck.
The best treatment for venous reflux is to prevent it. In some cases if it is a family tradition that all women in the family must have veins by the time they are 60 years old, then the goal is to put it off until you are 70.
Depending on you lifestyle there are some key things you can do now to decrease your future varicose vein burden.
Compression stockings are the first line of defense. Compression stockings are a great thing for women and men who work standing up most of the time. Postal workers, waitresses, nurses, flight attendants, teachers, and anybody else would benefit from compression stockings. When I am treating patients I recommend 20-30mmHg of compression. If you don't have big veins in you legs yet, a stocking with 10-20 mmHg of compression would be adequate. In my practice I recommend my patients wear them to work and take them off when they get home. Most of the patients who follow this plan report their legs feel better when the go out on the town after work.
Compression Stockings do not cure venous reflux. They do provide control of the consequences of venous reflux and slow the progression of varicose veins
Avoiding Hot baths will decrease the incidence of varicose veins. The heat in the bath leads to vasodilation. The vasodilation will increase the pressure through the vein and can lead to valvular dysfunction.
Dont cross you legs, cross you ankles. The saphenous vein runs on the inside of your thigh and you compress it when you cross your legs. Plus you mother said it was't ladylike!
Other preventive factors include exercise regularly and elevate you legs after exercising for 5 to 10 minutes, Avoid tight fitting clothing, and maintain a healthy weight.
Horse chestnut extract is a herbal supplement found in various vein preparations. Essentially the herb allows the stretched out veins to regain some recoil so they can reduce in size. Some question if this works but the Food and Drug Administration gave this herb the highest recommendation it gives out. This preparation showed some evidence of benefit and need to be further evaluated. I prescribe this for my patients
I treat this condition every day .. These are the nuts and bolts about preventing venous reflux and avoiding the complications
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