These veins, which are also commonly referred to as varicosities, come to life when your veins become dilated, enlarged and overfilled with blood. They typically appear raised and swollen, and are red or bluish-purple in color. Also, they’re often painful. The veins that are usually affected are the ones in your feet and legs. This is largely due to the fact that walking and standing upright increases the vein pressure in your lower body. It happens to be a very common condition, especially in women. About twenty-five percent of all the adult population in the world suffers this condition.
What Are The Leading Causes Of This Condition
Varicose veins happens when your veins are not functioning properly. Veins operate on a one-way valve system which prevents backward blood flow. When the valves fail the blood then starts to collect and clamp up in the veins rather than flow back to the heart. Below are the leading causes for this condition.
1. Pregnancy
During pregnancy, there’s usually an increase of around fifty percent in blood volume. This combined with increased hormone levels can greatly increase the pressure on the walls of your veins, which can inevitably affect circulation. The change in your circulatory is done to support fetus growth, however, unfortunate side effects are something it can produce. One of them being this common medical condition. When you begin to experience varicosities after pregnancy you definitely need to consider seeking treatment from a Varicose veins clinic in Phoenix.
2. Gender
Unfortunately, venous diseases or vascular complications are something women experience much more than men do. This is largely due to their various hormonal conditions, pregnancy (as we highlighted earlier) and several other medical complications specific to the female species. The use of birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy can also affect circulation and give rise to this condition.
3. Lack of Exercise
A healthy circulation system can be maintained by regular exercise. Additionally, an occasional run and/or walk can help in the development of healthy calf muscles. This will ensure they’re functioning properly. When this happens the pumping mechanism required to transfer blood towards your heart is created and this helps encourage a healthy circulatory system.
4. Prolonged Standing
If you stand for long periods of time this can cause a pressure increase on the walls of your veins. This is, more often than not, going to consequently result in increased blood volumes as well as swelling on your lower limbs. If your work involves a lot of standing, it helps to flex your leg muscles from time to time, periodically sitting down for some few minutes and even elevating your legs. A lot of the time doing these few things can help you avoid having to suffer varicosities.
Most doctors are generally conservative when it comes to treating this medical condition. Most often than not, the medical advice they usually give is to try changing your lifestyle. They rarely treat this condition with hard drugs. Many times, they’re absolutely right. They can get worse over time, but if you catch them early and do what’s required to treat them then you should be absolutely fine.