Varicose veins
goodtoknow says: Varicose veins don't look nice, but they often don't cause any problems. They're basically a result of valve damage inside a blood vessel (vein) and can make your legs ache and itch, especially in hot weather. You are more likely to get varicose veins if you're overweight or spend a lot of time standing up. But they run in families too. They don't just happen to women, mild varicose veins are common in men too. If you want to get rid of them new techniques involving lasers and chemical injections are very popular.
For a full medical explanation of the causes, symptoms and treatments of varicose veins from patient.co.uk, read on.
Varicose veins may be unsightly but do not cause symptoms or complications in most cases. If treatment is advised, or wanted for cosmetic reasons, an operation to 'strip' the varicose veins is a common treatment. Newer techniques to get rid of the veins have recently been introduced, and may become popular.
Understanding normal leg veins
Veins are blood vessels which take blood back to the heart. Blood flows up the leg veins, into larger veins, and towards the heart.
There are three types of veins in the legs.
- Superficial veins are the ones just below the skin surface. You can often see or feel the larger superficial veins. The superficial leg veins are the ones that may develop into 'varicose veins'.
- Deep leg veins pass through the muscles. You cannot see or feel these.
- Many small 'perforater' veins take blood from the superficial veins into the deep veins.
There are one-way valves at intervals inside the larger veins. These valves prevent blood flowing back in the wrong direction. When we stand there is quite a height of blood between the heart and legs. Gravity tends to pull the blood back down, but is prevented from doing so by the vein valves, and by the normal flow of blood towards the heart.
- Next: What are varicose veins?
Average rating:
