Varicose veins are swollen veins that lie under your skin. They look lumpy and dark blue or purple through your skin. They usually affect your legs, particularly your calf and sometimes your thigh.Veins have one-way valves that help keep blood flowing toward your heart. If your valves are weak or damaged, blood can back up and pool in your veins. This causes the veins to swell and can lead to varicose veins. A number of factors may increase your risk for varicose veins . These include family history, age, gender, pregnancy, overweight or obesity, and lack of movement. Varicose veins are treated with lifestyle changes and medical procedures. The goals of treatment are to relieve symptoms, prevent complications, and improve appearance.
Should you worry if you see varicose veins on my legs? In some cases, varicose veins can cause complications, such as pain, blood clots, or skin ulcers. If your condition is more severe, your doctor may recommend one or more medical procedures. Some people choose to have these procedures to improve their symptoms or the appearance of their varicose veins.A number of treatments are available for varicose veins that are quick and easy and don’t require recovery time. Lifestyle change is easier than having varicose veins medically removed.
Compression stockings help to maintain the flow of blood in the veins of your legs and reduce leg swelling. They are used to treat leg ulcers and varicose veins, and to help reduce the risk of blood clots forming in the veins of your legs (deep vein thrombosis, DVT). Exercise, walking, and being mindful of how long you’re sitting or standing. Both sitting and standing too long doesn’t help move your blood through those veins putting extra pressure on them.
Before you continue surgery, see if you can lesson the appearance or symptoms you are experiencing by exercise and diet. Here are some suggestions.To help lose weight you need to reduce how many calories you eat. If you reduce your portion sizes, it may help you to achieve this but a healthy, balanced diet may not always mean eating less food. It might just mean choosing different types of food. But don’t feel you have to cut out all the foods you enjoy from your new eating plan. You will only crave them all the more if you do that. Instead, make sure you eat them only now and again for a treat.
Instead of eating lots of fatty foods, try filling up on fruit and vegetables. Weight for weight, fat has more than twice the calories of carbohydrates and protein. So satisfy your hunger with bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. Use less butter, margarine and vegetable oils and use healthier alternatives instead. For example, instead of piling butter on your toast, try hummus. Find low-fat alternatives to creamy sauces and buttery toppings. Instead of frying or roasting food, boil, poach, grill, steam or microwave it. Replace snacks such as chocolate with healthier alternatives such as fruit. If this doesn’t work for you, have a small piece of chocolate rather than the whole bar. While it’s great to be determined to achieve your goals, don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up once in a while. With all the willpower in the world, life can still throw up some serious temptations to knock you off course. Accept that this will happen and that it’s not the end of the world – or your diet. Get straight back on track and don’t let the slip-up make you lose sight of the progress you’re making. Hopefully, you’ll learn from it and can lessen the chances of it happening again.