Varicose veins are characterized by the irregular expansion of the light in the leg veins, the appearance of nodules in them and an increase in their length. The disease develops gradually, characterized by a chronic course.
Women suffer from varicose veins three times more than men. And among the representatives of the strong sex, people who love sports with the maximum load distribution in their legs are subject to this disease: football, tennis, basketball.
Why varicose veins occur
There are three types of veins in the leg tissues: superficial, deep, connecting superficial and deep veins. Each vein is a hollow tube through which blood flows from the tissues of the legs to the heart. There are no muscle cells in the walls of the veins, so the vein cannot contract to push the blood upwards. This task is performed by the skeletal muscles of the legs. And the valves are located inside the veins - they close their valves when the skeletal muscles contract, preventing blood from refluxing. Each muscle contraction "pushes" the blood upwards.
When the valve flaps do not close properly, some of the blood flows back, stagnates in the vein, presses on its walls, gradually stretching them. The lumen of the vein expands, its wall is stretched. This is the beginning of varicose veins.
Factors that trigger the disease:
- Heredity - with a congenital lack of collagen fibers, the vein wall is less elastic and prone to stretching.
- Stagnation of blood in the veins of the legs with overweight and obesity, wearing shoes with heels of more than 3-4 centimeters, with prolonged stay in a place of people of certain professions - hairdressers and salesmen, cooks, teachers or permanentlyprolonged in office workers.
- Changes in hormone levels: the increased progesterone content in the blood of a pregnant woman makes the walls soft and extensible, so that the risk of varicose veins during the gestation period increases dramatically.
The first signs of varicose veins - how not to lose
The moment when spider veins or spider veins - reticular varicose veins - appear on the skin of the legs is considered an alarm signal about incipient varicose veins. This is not a cosmetic defect, but the beginning of the disease!
Simultaneously or after a while, the second group of signs comes together - a feeling of heaviness in the legs, spreading in the legs after standing for a long time or sitting in a chair. When a person starts walking, the sensation of weight decreases: the skeletal muscles push the stagnant blood upwards and the stretching of the vein walls decreases.
The later development of the disease is manifested by edema in the legs - they are marks of socks, thickening of one leg in relation to the other during the visual examination.
Subsequently, pain in the calf muscles of the legs, rapid fatigue when walking, joins dry skin of the legs and their pigmentation, protrusion of varicose veins and formation of trophic ulcers.
When to consult a vascular surgeon?
When the first spider veins and asterisks appear, a specialist should be consulted and, if necessary, an ultrasound examination of the veins of the lower limbs and surgery for varicose veins. The earlier the diagnosis of varicose veins is made, the more likely it is to interrupt it at an early stage.