Spider Veins – Some facts you should know
Is it spider veins?
Perhaps you would have assumed a lesser abnormality to be spider veins or in fact, you may have damaged veneous also known as "broken capillaries". In either case, you can benefit from learning what spider veins are and equip yourself to face it, if your problem is spider veins indeed. Fortunately, if your problem turns out to be a simpler and temporary disorder, your knowledge about spider veins can come in handy for some one else known to you.
How do I know?
The medical term for spider veins is ‘telangiectasias’ which is very difficult for people to remember or even pronounce. Therefore, the affliction is generally termed spider veins. When you are affected by this abnormality, a network of red or blue thin veins right below your skin surface, generally on the face or legs or sometimes both will appear. The pattern of the veins then correspond to a spider’s web or tree branches and hence the name spider veins.
Spider veins affect 25% of all women though the occurrence is less common in men, and occurs generally around 40 years of age. Weakness of the vein valves is the main cause of leaking or damaged capillaires. This means that blood leaks back into your veins and collects there. This leaked blood collected around the veins gives rise to those not so good looking and protruding veins.
What are the main causes?
Long hours of standing as part of one’s occupation ( like in the case of a teacher ), heredity, hormonal changes during or after pregnancy, substantially long exposure to sun are some of the major reasons for outbreaks and damaged capillaries. Among this, heredity or your gene has been seen to be the most major cause.
Spider veins occur more on the legs because of the body structure, the legs having to bear your body weight, the pressure and the need to pump your blood all the way back to the heart. This reasons why the veins around your legs are more susceptible to symptoms.
Treatment
But, the good news is that visible symptoms are not a life threatening disease, though it can create cosmetic disadvantages and embarrassment , particularly to women.
There are three established ways of treatment: Laser rays to burst the affected veins and destroy them, scelerotherapy which is injecting a solution into the vein and causing it to die out, and the third is home remedies involving various types of creams etc. Spider veins can return even after treatment, though modern methods have seen a high degree of success. |
