FineTouch Dermatology
Arteries bring oxygen-rich blood from your heart to the rest of your body and veins return oxygen-poor blood back to your heart. Varicose veins are swollen veins that you can see through your skin. They often look blue, bulging, and twisted. Left untreated, varicose veins may worsen over time. Leg veins, spider veins and other benign vascular lesions are among the most frequent and challenging aesthetic complaints. Varicose veins can cause aching and feelings of fatigue as well as skin changes like rashes, redness, and sores and wounds when the skin breaks down. As many as 40 million Americans, most of them women, have varicose veins.
When you are in the upright position, the blood in your leg veins must work against gravity to return to your heart. To accomplish this, your leg muscles squeeze the deep veins of your legs and feet. One-way flaps, called valves, in your veins keep blood flowing in the right direction. When your leg muscles contract, the valves inside your veins open. When your legs relax, the valves close. This prevents blood from flowing in reverse, back down the legs. When you walk and your leg muscles squeeze, the venous pump works well. But when you sit or stand, especially for a long time, the blood in your leg veins can pool and the pressure in your veins can increase, and veins can stretch if you repeatedly sit or stand for a long time. This stretching can sometimes weaken the walls of your veins and damage your vein valves, and thus varicose veins may result. In other words, high blood pressure inside your superficial leg veins causes varicose veins, or spider veins, which are mild varicose veins. Other factors that can increase your risk for varicose veins include having a family history of varicose veins, being overweight, not exercising enough, smoking, or standing or sitting for long periods of time. Women are more likely than men to develop varicose veins. Varicose veins usually affect people between the ages of 30 and 70.
Spider veins are not a serious medical problem, but they can be a cosmetic concern to some people, and they can cause symptoms of aching pain and itching in others. If you have varicose veins, your legs may feel heavy, tired, restless, or achy. Standing or sitting for too long may worsen your symptoms. For more information, please consult a Los Angeles board certified dermatologist at FineTouch Dermatology clinic by calling (310)318-1500, or visit http://www.finetouchdermatology.com
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