It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝what to do about varicose veins, anything other than com,pression socks?❞

So, first of all, we did do an article a while back that has some overlap:

DVT Risk Management Beyond The Socks

Now, it’s worth noting that deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and varicose veins do have some important dissimilarities:

• DVT is, as the full name suggests, about thrombotic risk, i.e. blood clots
• Varicose veins are, as the name suggests (Latin varix = dilated) about dilated veins, i.e. more like the opposite problem

…which means that while circulation is an important factor in both, some medications/supplements/strategies will only be appropriate for one or the other.

Also,

• DVT, being about thrombotic risk, can kill you
• Varicose veins are usually considered harmless in and of themselves (although they sometimes may be a symptom of something else, and the something else can sometimes be more serious, sometimes not, so it’s still worth getting checked out).

Lastly, before we carry on, let’s note that varicose veins are not the same thing as “thread veins” or “spider veins”:

• Thread/Spider veins are usually small veins or even capillaries near the skin, and can be blue or red depending on oxygenation (including: depending on direction of travel), often appearing purple if moderately oxygenated or the red/blue are plumbed next to each other and you are effectively viewing both at once. They do not caused raised textures, and are merely visible.
• Varicose veins are, by definition, larger swollen veins (dilating made them larger, and the pressure of blood swells them) that have lost tension, thus often appear twisted, and because of their size, are very often palpable (producing raised textures that can be felt easily with the hand).

Now, onto the topic of management…

What can be done?

Firstly: if they are not causing you discomfort, and a doctor has confirmed to your satisfaction that they’re not a symptom of something more serious, you can just ignore them.

However, it’s probably best to try to treat them regardless, as something ignored now could potentially cause problems later, and it’d be nicer to avoid that later discomfort by treating them now.

Home remedies are plentiful and many are effective:

• Compression stockings: these effectively replace the tension that the veins were supposed to have—but it’s worth noting that this means they treat the symptom, not the cause. See also:
  • Podiatrists Debunk 11 Feet Myths
• Loose clothing: paradoxically, can help too. The thing here is that certain tight clothing—like “shapewear” designed to give a conventionally attractive outline between one’s waist and thighs—can essentially be similar to having applied a tourniquet in several places, which thus can cause circulatory problems, and is not the same same thing as compression stockings’ much more evenly-applied pressure. See also:
  • Are Waist Trainers Just A Waste?
• Put your feet up: literally, elevating your feet makes the circulation’s job easier. Of course, this is a temporary relief, as for most people it will be impractical to spend all hours with one’s feet elevated. A good use of this one is to compensate for extended periods of standing, during which time (if circulation is not excellent) blood can pool somewhat from the bottom up, contributing to varicose veins. See also:
  • Put Your Feet Up! (Against A Wall, For 20 Minutes)
• Keep moving: paradoxically again, can help too. Cardio exercise is great for the circulation, as is movement in general (even without breaking a sweat). Again, this is important for breaking up periods of standing or sitting. See also:
  • Stand Up For Your Health (Or Don’t)
  • Improve Blood Flow & Circulation In Your Legs
• Diet: especially, enjoy lots of fruit and vegetables. Fiber, especially rutin, is important for circulatory health, as are polyphenols, especially flavonoids. See also:
  • Rutin For Your Circulation & More
  • Are You Getting The Right Kinds Of Flavonoids?
• Electrolyte balance: to help the body’s natural process of homeostasis (by which, amongst many other things, it maintains blood pressure), many people would benefit from consuming less sodium (increases water retention and blood pressure) and more potassium (reduces water retention and blood pressure). See also:
  • Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Potassium
  • When To Take Electrolytes (And When We Shouldn’t!)
• Lose weight if you can healthily do so: simply, more weight puts more pressure on the circulatory system, so losing weight can alleviate that. However, being underweight is not beneficial either, nor are overly restrictive diets, so please do be moderate in any use of this one. See also:
  • Lose Weight (Healthily!)
  • Shedding Some Obesity Myths

There are also herbal remedies, but we were not able to find any reliable evidence to support them, aside from insofar as many plants (and thus, their phytochemicals) do support good circulation, as we covered above under “diet”.

Failing all that, doctors have an array of surgical options at their disposal, mostly various methods of sealing and sometimes removing the veins in question. None seem pleasant and all surgeries carry at least some risk, but that’s a discussion for you and your doctor.

Take care!