I get asked this question every day. Why do I have VARICOSE VEINS? I run/exercise/workout every day. How come I have this problem.
Veins of your body act as a battery for the entire blood volume of your body. This battery while at normal capacity and function works well managing return of blood back to the heart. Why when someone passes out, you lay them down and raise their legs. This pushes blood that is within their legs back into circulation and helps bolster their blood pressure and helps wake them up. Here is a quick link to the Mayo clinic for support.
This battery can become “overcharged” as veins have the innate ability to dilate and take on more volume. They stretch and grow to accommodate further volume. This can have a significant effect on veins that have a limited stretch that they can accommodate and maintain normal function.
Most veins are dependent on one way valves working to help move blood back to your heart. As the veins get larger the valves no longer touch and one way valves become useless. Without these valves intact then blood can move whichever way it wants. Imagine all these valves are broken in our body, it would be pure chaos. For us to not pass out unconscious and for blood to continue to make it back to our heart the amount of pressure we would have to make to get blood back fast enough for the next heartbeat can be massive. We like to stand on our feet to move and that’s where the blood will go. In walks the varicose vein and its younger brother the spider vein.
Classically varicose veins are labeled as cosmetic as people don’t like how they look. Myself as a medical professional and one not to leave rocks unturned say why does this happen when we aren’t born that way. Hydraulic pressure! Our skin is not meant to withstand this pressure, nothing is pushing back. The deep vessels of our legs can push back but not the vessels within our skin. They accommodate, accommodate, accommodate; never ceasing in their giving way to the pressures from above. And this is why we develop spider veins then reticular veins then varicose veins and in some unlucky patients wounds ulcers and infections.
How do we prevent this? Think of what we do daily that worsens this hydraulic situation. We sit in front of computers for hours on end, travel in pressurized plane cabins, upright in a car for literally days on end all pressurizing these vessels and eventually breaking them.
We are not designed to sit still. “Movement Is Life!” This is why we have Varicose Veins.
If we can consider wearing compression stockings or taking a break to get our legs up we can reduce the pressure on these vessels.
Do your legs a favor today and give them and their vessels the love and attention they need before they become damaged by resting with your legs up, exercising to help move blood and if you don’t have arterial disease to wear compression garments when in situations that will worsen this disease (flying, driving, sitting still to name a few).
Hopefully you’ve learned something about your body today or you can help someone else out that may be suffering from this disease. Get into your local vein specialist to have them assess and see what can be done for you!