EFFINGHAM, IL-(Effingham Radio)- If you’re living with varicose veins, here’s something you may already realize: They can affect more than your appearance. For many people, varicose veins can cause significant discomfort.
Varicose veins are bulging, twisted veins under the skin of the legs. You can usually feel them, which makes them pretty easy to tell apart from tinier spider veins.
“Varicose veins are caused by malfunctioning valves in the veins,” says Aman Khurana, MD, vascular and venous disease specialist with Prairie Cardiovascular. “Normally, these one-way valves let blood flow back to the heart, pumping against gravity and preventing blood from flowing backwards. If the valves aren’t working properly, blood is allowed to pool inside the veins, making them swell.”
Getting older raises your risk for varicose veins. So does:
- Having a family history of varicose veins.
- Sitting or standing for long periods.
- Not exercising regularly.
- Being overweight.
- Having been pregnant and given birth to a baby. The risk increases even more with multiple pregnancies and births.
Bothersome symptoms
Some varicose veins never cause symptoms. But you may want to see your primary care provider if you have larger varicose veins, especially if they’re bothering you.
More than just a cosmetic issue, varicose veins can cause pain, itching, heaviness, cramps and swelling. These symptoms may be worse when you’re on your feet. In more severe cases, open sores and thickened skin can develop over varicose veins. They can also cause blood clots.
Fortunately, treatment can help prevent these and other complications and relieve the symptoms of varicose veins.
First your provider may suggest these lifestyle changes:
- Get regular exercise to help keep blood moving through your veins. Some strenuous activities may make varicose veins worse, so be sure to follow your doctor’s advice.
- Try to avoid sitting for long periods of time—get up and move around.
- Lose weight, if you’re overweight.
- Put your legs up when sitting or resting.
Your provider might also want you to wear compression stockings to reduce swelling.
Minimally invasive procedures that treat varicose veins
If those changes don’t help you enough, you might consider a medical procedure to treat your varicose veins.
Treatments like endovenous ablation and sclerotherapy can be done in a doctor’s office. They use lasers, heat energy or chemicals to close off the veins. Sometimes, instead of sclerotherapy, surgery—which may be done as an outpatient procedure—is used to remove severe varicose veins.
Prairie Vein Clinic offers treatment options for those struggling with cosmetic and medical vein issues in the legs. For more information and to take an online vein assessment, visit Prairie’s website.
About Prairie Heart Institute of Illinois
The Prairie Heart Institute of Illinois (PHII) is a community-based network of hospitals that offers cardiovascular programs staffed by the nationally recognized Prairie Cardiovascular, the largest group of cardiologists in the tri-state region. Because of the Prairie Education and Research Consortium (PERC), network hospitals of PHII also have access to drugs and treatments not widely available. The network hospitals of PHII offer the highest level of cardiovascular care possible in their communities. When more specialized care is needed, it is available in Springfield, O’Fallon or Carbondale.
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