Varicose Vein Causes: What are They?

• The major varicose vein causes involve anything that puts excessive pressure on your legs, including obesity, standing for long periods of time, or tight hosiery.
• Paying attention to varicose veins prevention methods, including exercising regularly, eating healthy, and keeping legs elevated can help prevent these unsightly problems from developing.
• Be aware that deep vein thrombosis can develop in your legs and can cause life-threatening complications

While you might assume your varicose veins are no problem as long as you keep your legs covered, you might be wrong. Varicose veins are sometimes just a cosmetic problem but they can also lead to greater complications, cause chronic pain, or suggest serious problems with your body’s circulation. Varicose vein prevention is, therefore, a great idea but first you need to know what causes them in the first place.

Varicose Vein Formation

As you may already know, varicose veins are bulging, bluish looking veins that are easily visible. The veins look twisted and gnarled like old tree limbs under your skin. To understand what causes these unsightly bulges, you need to understand a little bit about how your circulatory system works.

Veins and arteries are the two main networks that carry blood through your body. Your arteries take the blood away from your heart while the veins send it back to the heart. When you do a lot of standing, the veins in your legs have a harder time returning the blood to your heart because they are pushing against gravity. Your leg muscles and valves within your leg veins help the process move smoothly.

The bad news is that when you begin to get older, those valves that helped keep the blood moving upward aren’t as strong as they were when you were younger. As a result, some of the blood will fall back down and start pooling within your leg veins. The blood has nowhere to go so it builds up in the veins and makes them bulge.

If you’re wondering why the veins look blue, that’s an easy question to answer, too. When blood leaves the heart, it is full of oxygen which is delivered to the different parts of the body. By the time the blood reaches the veins for its return trip to the heart, all of the oxygen is gone and that’s what gives the blood a blue color.

Varicose vein causes include anything that increases the pressure on your legs, including standing for long periods of time, pregnancy, or obesity.

Tips for Varicose Vein Prevention

You can actually take steps now to stop the development of varicose veins. For example, women should avoid wearing high heels and tight pantyhose. These items might look sexy now but they are one of the leading varicose vein causes. Keep your diet healthy and low in salt so you can reduce your blood pressure. Staying at a appropriate weight, exercising, and avoiding a single standing or sitting position for long periods of time are also important. You should also try to keep your legs elevated whenever possible.

A Major Risk

While varicose veins are troublesome and have the potential to cause other problems, another risk is deep vein thrombosis. You don’t necessarily need to have varicose veins to develop this problem but it could put you at greater risk.

With deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot develops in one of your deep leg veins usually as a result of sitting for long periods of time. If that clot breaks free, it can travel to the lungs or can cause blockages in other parts of the body leading to strokes and heart attacks.

The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.