Healthy Living expands its knowledge about varicose veins

Women over fifty years of age are particularly prone to the unsightly spider or varicose veins. The spider veins show easily while the varicose veins take longer to surface. There are many contributing factors such as pregnancy, obesity and genetics. In this segment Healthy Living also discovers what types of treatments are available to deal with the condition.

Marleni Cuellar, Reporting

Most women are familiar with spider veins; the unsightly pattern is often a nuisance for women for cosmetic reasons. But spider veins and the larger version varicose veins are a sign of poor vein health. General Surgeon, Dr Jose Moguel, explains how both spider & varicose veins are more than just a cosmetic problem

Dr. Jose Moguel, General Surgeon

Jose Moguel

“Varicose veins are diseased veins usually affecting the lower limb where the veins have hypertension, have high pressure within them and thus they start to dilated become very visible and that can happen to the different sizes of the vein from the bigger ones to the smaller ones, the bigger ones being the varicose veins and the smaller ones being the spider veins.”

Spider veins are easier to identify as they are closer to the surface of the skin and look like red or bluish spider webs. Varicose veins though are not as easy to detect, in fact the enlarged veins become visible as the problem becomes advanced. At this point the veins start to bulge under the skin looking like twisted worms under the skin’s surface. The symptoms of the problem can be felt earlier but are often missed.

Dr. Jose Moguel

“There are very many symptoms from a dull ache to swelling, changes in the skin, depending on the advancement of the illness so the symptoms would appear.  The problem is that the varicosities or the varicose veins disease is a problem of standing of keeping on the foot for long…so when a person’s work would entail being on their foot for too long then there is a predisposition to this illness.”

Persons over fifty and women are more predisposed to developing varicosities, other contributing factors include: pregnancy, obesity, excessive sun exposure, sedentary lifestyle, genetics and some medical conditions like deep vein thrombosis would lead to blockage in the veins causing varicose veins.  There are risks associated with the condition. Dr. Moguel explains.

Dr. Jose Moguel

“First there’s a risk to infection, once a person has varicose veins there can be changes in the skin. The persons can have discoloration, cosmetic changes also the limb can form ulceration thus an infection can set in as well as when the varicose veins can start to pool blood it can even block and cause thrombus as well so a person who has varicose veins can have other cardiovascular complications meaning heart and other blood vessels becoming involved as well. Even when the person has an ulcer they would consult for the ulcer and not the varicose veins and it would be upon evaluation medical examination. That one would be able to decide what is the cause of it.”

The good news is that there is treatment available for both spider and varicose veins.

Dr. Jose Moguel

“You have general recommendations for everybody. You know, which is moderate exercise to compressive bandaging or stocking and a lot of tips. They have about 6 tips that the celebrities use to avoid these things: low heels not high heels, moderate work out and what have you . those are the general things that we do. Then there are medical treatments that we use for varicose veins which range from the minimal intervention which have nothing to do with surgery or operations which would be sclerotherapy, laser treatment, scleroptherapy means you’d inject a little chemical into the vein to block the vein and thus remove the spider vein.”

Not all patients need treatment for their varicose veins or spider veins. Many people have no pain or other symptoms; however, in severe cases, surgical procedures are recommended to treat very large varicose veins.