Varicose veins are a disease accompanied by dilation of subcutaneous blood vessels or veins located deep under the skin of the human body.
With this disease, the walls of the veins lose their elasticity as the varicose veins appear, dilate, form blood stagnation, and are most visible on the legs of women. They are the ones who suffer from the disease most often. The disease can occur from the age of 20, but is more common in middle-aged women. Men also get sick, but much less often.
Cause
Sometimes varicose veins are caused by frequent use of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol itself provokes vasodilation, but if abused, it leads to harmful consequences.
Young girls who like to sit cross-country for hours are also at risk for the disease. In this position of the legs, stagnation of the blood occurs, leading to an interruption in the natural blood supply to the whole body.
The main factors
What are the causes of varicose veins?
- Heredity. If the parents had weakened venous walls, this could be repeated in children.
- High blood pressure can be the cause of the disease. Sometimes this is due to a violation of the hormonal system.
- For many women, pregnancy is difficult, especially in late pregnancy. At first, the disease does not manifest itself, but after childbirth, all signs of the disease are on the face. The stress that women endure during childbirth strongly affects the location of veins.
- Overloading the body with physical muscle work provides all the conditions for the disease to develop. This is common in athlete athletes. It must be able to properly regulate the load on the human body.
- Sedentary workers, especially office workers, are exposed to varicose veins.
- Staying on your feet is not better - it can also lead to the development of the disease.
- Women are at risk who often use contraception with a lot of hormones.
- Disease of the hip joint or previous trauma can cause the disease to develop.
- Overweight people most often have varicose veins. They have a constant load on the venous system.
- Abuse of tanning, frequent saunaing, and alcohol consumption lead to a similar situation.
Varicose veins are much easier to avoid than to cure. You just need to lead a healthy lifestyle, pay attention to good physical fitness as well as a normal diet. In this case, there is a high probability of avoiding varicose veins.
How does varicose veins manifest in the legs? The first signs in the photo
As a general rule, various symptoms of varicose veins may appear in the early stages, at which point the disease can still be treated.
Usually, people rarely think of tired legs, swelling, or varicose veins in the evening. If the symptoms appear too sharp, we are talking about a neglected disease.
Early manifestations of varicose veins
As a general rule, it is not so easy to identify the early stages of varicose veins. This is due to the fact that varicose veins have huge symptoms and few pay attention to them. People ignore the swelling and fatigue of the legs. It especially affects pregnant women: often varicose veins are not given much importance and it is believed that such a complication during pregnancy is completely normal.
In fact, the cause of varicose veins is considered to be too much weight, but usually the pounds disappear after the baby appears, but it can also happen that a woman who has suffered from varicose veins during pregnancy cannot get rid of this disease. birth of a child. This is often due to the fact that being overweight leads to venous disease.
The early symptoms of varicose veins are easy to notice: the legs quickly get tired of all physical activity, numb when in a position for a long time. Usually, however, someone rarely pays attention to this because they believe that leg pain is normal when overcoming long distances. In winter, many attribute the pain to the presence of heavy, insulated shoes on their feet, while in summer the cause is warm. However, this is just an excuse, and there is no truth in that.
It is worth considering the earliest symptoms of varicose veins that are seen during diagnosis when you consult a specialist: leg fatigue after a little physical effort or pain after wearing heavy shoes, often women wearing heels face this, the presence of pain, burning sensation in the evenings, increased fatigue, deterioration of working capacity. If the disease is neglected, the first sign of varicose veins is an ulcer.
Diagnostics
From the onset of detection of a disease, such as varicose veins, venous probing is required to determine pain, tension, density, the presence of affected venous sections, swelling, and inflammation. The specialist performing this test is called a phlebologist. What to do at the first signs of varicose veins on the legs? First, the severity of the disease must be determined.
During the procedure, the patient must be in an upright position so that the veins are filled with blood as much as possible. It is best to make the diagnosis in the evening - this will allow the affected areas to be more outlined. With the help of palpation and superficial examination, the person skilled in the art can obtain the very first information about the condition of the patient's blood vessels. After the preliminary examination, the second stage of the diagnosis of varicose veins begins - the examination with the help of ultrasound.
Performing tests to diagnose varicose veins is an important source of information to help diagnose the disease correctly.
What tests should be done if varicose veins are suspected?
The first test is blood sampling for hormones, biochemistry, and hemoglobin. They also do a general blood test to determine their group and rhesus, the infectious group.
The patient must then add urine for analysis to determine hemoglobin, sugar, and ketone bodies, and this analysis also determines acetone and ammonia in the patient's urine.
Ultrasound procedure
You can use ultrasound or venous ultrasound to examine the venous system from the inside and find foci of disease. This procedure takes up to half an hour while the patient is in a horizontal position.
Treatment
This disease is very dangerous and widespread all over the world, different treatments are used depending on the stage of the disease.
In order to treat the first signs of varicose veins in the legs, you should consult a phlebologist, after the examination you will make the correct diagnosis, you can not treat this disease on your own. In the absence of timely treatment, patients may die.
Methods for treating the first signs of leg varicose veins:
- sclerotherapy;
- medical treatment;
- herbs;
- compression underwear;
- surgical intervention.
Traditional methods
Only used in complex treatments in combination with drugs, nettle, acacia tinctures should be taken. These tinctures are drunk three times a day before meals, useful for making cool foot baths from burdock, nettle and birch decoctions.
All recommended herbal preparations should only be taken with a doctor's permission; it is not recommended to drink decoctions and tinctures on their own.
Treatment with drugs
Used drugs that have a tonic effect on the veins and are sold in the pharmacy in the form of ointments and gels.
In order to use ointments effectively, it is also recommended to wear compression underwear.
Compression underwear
This selection includes tights, stockings, at different stages of varicose veins, different compression of the bedding is prescribed. You can buy such medicated stockings in specialty stores.
This underwear helps to normalize the venous outflow of blood, the necessary compression force restores the normal functioning of the veins.
Taking medications does not completely cure varicose veins, but it removes some of the symptoms and facilitates the course of the disease. In addition, the use of different medications reduces the risk of developing a disease such as thrombophlebitis. This disease occurs due to a lack of treatment for varicose veins, is only treated in a hospital, and often requires surgery.
In addition, I often use lymphatic drainage massage for the treatment, thanks to the general therapeutic treatment, the patient's lymph outflow in the legs is improved, edema is reduced, fatigue and heaviness in the legs are eliminated. The only negative is the effect of massage. It only lasts for two months, but then the massage regimen can be extended.
Sclerotherapy
This type of treatment is used when surgery is needed, but this procedure is different from surgery. A special medicine is injected into a vein in which a thrombus is found.
This medicine works by destroying the top layer of the affected vein and then sticking it together. Then, after 1, 5 years, this vein dissolves in the human body, other veins begin to perform their functional functions.
The medicine is prescribed by a phlebologist, and individual treatment is given to each patient. Sclerotherapy involves 3-6 procedures, after a period of 2-8 weeks the doctor will be able to determine how this treatment worked.
This procedure should only be performed by experienced professionals because if the procedure is performed incorrectly, the vein will restore blood flow to the sclerotic vessel and there will be no therapeutic effect.
In addition to administering drugs, a microfoam is injected into a vein using this procedure. The accuracy of this procedure requires an ultrasound scanner, which allows the doctor to see the movement of the needle and the process of drug delivery on the screen.
In more severe cases, when massage, compression underwear, medications do not help, and the disease enters an more acute stage, such patients prescribe surgeries.
Consequences of varicose veins
The consequence of the disease does not promise much good, it is a cosmetic problem and is related to other health problems that have arisen as a result of varicose veins. The women most affected are the ones who want their legs to be beautiful and slim. With the onset of the disease, this is impossible, but the cosmetic problem is not the main one. Varicose veins lead to more tangible health problems.
Most often, there is pain in the legs, accompanied by unpleasant itching. There is painful pain due to insufficient oxygen and other trace elements that cannot get through the affected area. The cause of the pain is damage to the large veins. But small pots also give unpleasant feelings.
Of course, a cosmetic problem is also important for women, but the more unpleasant consequences are swollen ankles. The pain disappears in the upper and lower legs. Even when you have a good rest, you feel constant pain.
Dermatitis - a consequence of varicose veins
The worst consequence is dermatitis. The disease develops at the site of varicose veins. In such a disease, a person suffers from constant itching, wound formation and the occurrence of various rashes. The development of dermatitis can lead to thrombophlebitis. When a blood clot appears, you should urgently seek professional help. Failure to do so can have very serious consequences for a person. Therefore, it should not be delayed in any way.