Varicose veins

What are varicose veins and how to we recognize them?
We have three types of varicose veins that you can recognize by appearance:
Spiders – red and bluish threads.
Reticular – bluish ribbon like threads in the skin.
The varicose vein is often seen as a large blue bulging compressible structure just under the skin.
What is chronic venous insufficiency and who is the most at risk?
Veins are responsible for transporting blood from the organs back to the heart. To reach the heart, the blood must flow up through the veins in the legs. At the footstep, the muscles of the feet and calves shrink, and the blood is pushed towards the heart. To keep the blood flow up and not back down, the veins have one-way valves.

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) occurs when the valves are damaged and allow the blood to regress in the veins. Valve damage can be the result of aging, constant work in one position – sitting or standing, morbid obesity, or limited physical activity. When the veins and their valves are weakened to such an extent that it significantly impedes the flow of blood towards the heart, the pressure in the veins rises, which in time leads to the condition called venous insufficiency. The appearance of “potbellied” distended varicose veins is usually the first visible sign of the disease. People experience heaviness, aching, swelling, itching, fatigue and cramping of the legs without realizing that CVI is the cause!

Venous insufficiency is also often the result of the formation of blood clots in the veins of the legs, a disease called deep vein thrombosis. Venous insufficiency arises when the valves in the veins of the legs are unable to retard the downward flow of blood under the force of gravity which gradually causes stagnation of the blood in the veins and fluid exudation into the tissues, which in turn causes the swelling of the limbs, discoloration and destruction of the skin around the ankles and painful ulcers.

Chronic venous insufficiency resulting from thrombosis is often called post-thrombotic syndrome. As many as 30% of people with thrombosis within 10 years will develop a problem of severe chronic venous insufficiency. These people suffer painful swollen legs that impede their lifestyle and work in many ways.

You will read all about it soon in our book “A holistic approach to life”