Varicose Veins-Why me & why now?
Many patients who develop spider or varicose veins often don’t understand why this happens to them. Often they try to correlate new vein outbreaks to a region of local trauma near a large vein or standing too long on their feet. The truth about the vast majority of vein problems does not relate to trauma, always working out, never exercising, high heel shoes or too much sun exposure. Venous disease most frequently is heritary in nature. Typically your parents or grandparents had similar issues that were transferred to you. Other risk factors that may increase the frequency or severity of your vein probems include morbid obesity, # of pregnancies,
birth control pill, hormone replacement therapy, and even crossing your legs.
Today, most vein problems can be well manage by a vein specialist with minimally invasive techniques. Most vein problems fall into 2 large areas. Those that receive flow only from surface vessels and those that have deep feeder vessels that often supply most of the blood to what you see on the skin surface. A complete duplex ultrasound exam is the only true method to figure out what type of vein problem you may have in your legs. Without this exam, the physician is blindly guessing and treating you veins. The results will be far inferior without an accurate initial ultrasound exam.
Future vein outbreaks can not be eliminated by any physician no matter how talented they may be at treating venous disease. Yearly evaluations and annual treatments can help control new outbreaks. Since we can not currently change your DNA, your risk factors will always be present. However, similar to annual dental teeth cleaning, annual vein exams can very successfully keep your legs looking and feeling well. Frequent new outbreaks or treatment failures are often due to inaccurate initial evaluation and treatment plan. If you avoid pregnancy, obesity, leg crossing, HRT or birth control pill you can perhaps decrease the frequency of new outbreaks, but ultimately you heritary will be the final decision maker on who developes new vein issues.
