Treating and Preventing The Symptoms Of Varicose Veins in Winter

Date: 30/10/2017

Autumn and winter can often be a bad time for people with varicose veins. The good news is there are simple, actionable things you can do to decrease the negative effects that the winter months can have on the health of your veins.

Staying Active

The cold, dark evenings of late autumn and winter naturally encourage people to spend more time indoors. This leads to a drop in physical activity. Staying active is a great way to relieve pressure in your varicose veins and also improves your overall blood circulation. Whether it’s joining a gym throughout winter or simply doing some basic exercises from the comfort of your home, you should aim to keep your physical activity levels high.

Watching Your Diet

As we spend more time inside, curled up on the sofa or under a blanket, we tend to opt for foods that are higher in fat and sugar than compared with the rest of the year. Think of ‘comfort foods’ such as big hearty stews, pies and biscuits. This move to richer, fattier foods coupled with a more sedentary lifestyle can quickly lead to putting on weight. By being more aware of your diet and staying active you can ensure your weight doesn’t fluctuate. This will keep the pressure off from your veins.

Prevention

There are other things you can do throughout the year do to prevent varicose veins:

Don’t wear tight trousers or clothing
Stop smoking
Stretch your legs in the morning and the evening
Avoid standing in the same spot for long periods
Elevate your legs for short periods once or twice a day

Treatment

Early treatment often prevents the symptoms of varicose veins developing and removes the unsightly appearance. It is proven that the earlier you receive specialist treatment the better the long term cosmetic and clinical results.

Varicose veins are not like regular veins. They are diseased vessels that allow venous blood to move back down the leg – in the wrong direction.

Varicose vein blood flow

This interferes with normal circulation and forces normal veins to work harder. Eliminating the diseased veins is good for your circulation and reduces the workload for normal veins. When varicose veins are eliminated, patients often notice that their legs feel better and less tired.

Careful clinical examination of the leg veins is necessary before treatment starts. An ultrasound scan is used to assess the veins which cannot be seen through the skin. This painless procedure allows accurate diagnosis and mapping of your leg veins so that a tailored treatment of your veins can be provided and offered to you.

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