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VARICOSE veins are swollen, twisted and sometimes painful veins that have filled with an abnormal collection of blood.
In normal veins, valves keep blood moving towards the heart. However, in varicose veins the valves do not function properly, allowing blood to remain in the vein. Pooling of blood in a vein causes it to enlarge resulting in an unsightly appearance.
Symptoms include heaviness, aching leg pain, swelling or brown discoloration or ulcers of the skin at the ankles.
Dr Renny Napoleon, a general surgery consultant at Royal Bahrain Hospital, offers this advice to sufferers:
Maintain your ideal body weight to reduce excess pressure on your legs with a healthy diet high in fibre and low in fat and salt.
Avoid alcohol, which can cause the veins in legs to dilate.
Wear support compression leg stockings.
Do not cross your legs when sitting.
If you are working at a desk all day, try to get up and walk around every hour or so to allow the muscles to pump the blood out of the veins, avoiding sitting for extended periods of time. Flexing your ankles periodically will pump the blood out of your legs (simulating walking), so flex them 10 times and repeat every 10 minutes.
Elevate your legs when possible, keeping your feet positioned higher than heart level.
Exercise daily. Try walking, climbing stairs, cycling or swimming.
Treating symptoms early often results in an excellent outcome, but untreated varicose veins usually enlarge and worsen and lead to severe health problems like blood clots, sores or skin ulcers, spontaneous bleeding, ongoing irritation, swelling and painful rashes of the legs.
Your doctor will require a Duplex scan and treatment options include surgery, Sclerotherapy, laser ablation or radiofrequency ablation.
In case a vein ruptures and starts to bleed, immediately elevate your leg and compress the area. Contact your doctor or seek emergency medical care immediately.
For more information contact 1724 6800 or visit at www.royalbahrainhospital.com
