Spider Veins
What causes spider veins?
In general spider veins are caused by faulty valves in the venous system. Arteries carry blood from your heart to the rest of your tissues. Veins return blood from the rest of your body to your heart, so the blood can be recirculated through your system. The venous blood in your legs must work against gravity. In order to offset the gravity, the muscle contractions in your lower legs act as pump to move the blood back towards your heart. One-way valves in your veins open as the blood moves back to the heart and close to stop the blood from falling back down the leg.
Spider veins occur when these one-way valves malfunction. When this happens, blood pools in your veins, and your veins enlarge causing varicosities to form.
What are some of the risk factors?
Age: Aging causes wear and tear on the vein’s valves. Eventually this wear may cause the valves to malfunction.
Sex: Women are more likely to suffer from spider veins. Hormonal changes occurring in pregnancy, menopause, hormonal replacement therapy and use of birth control may be a factor that increases the risk of varicosities to form. Female hormones tend to relax the walls in veins.
Family History: spider veins in other family members greatly increase your risk of having them.
Obesity: A person who is overweight increases the risk of varicosities forming due to the increased pressure it puts on your veins.
Employment: Jobs or activities you may partake in that require you to stand for long periods of time are a definite risk factor. Standing increases pressure in the veins.
What are some of the symptoms?
- Pain, typically and aching or cramping feeling.
- Feeling of heaviness, restlessness, tiredness
- Swelling in your legs
- Inflammation
