If you have spider veins on your face or legs, you cannot help but notice the weblike web of thin red, blue, or purple lines covering your skin. Although they rarely cause more than moderate discomfort or a burning sensation, they can make you self-conscious about your look and harm your confidence.
While it’s true that spider veins aren’t always preventable, that doesn’t mean you have to put up with them if they do emerge. At Venustas Immortalis, we treat spider veins by identifying their underlying cause and eliminating it.
Five Causes Of Spider Veins You Might Know About
Spider veins appear due to the enlargement, injury, or rupture of tiny blood vessels close to the skin’s surface. Due to these changes, blood pools or branches out in the affected area, creating the spiderlike pattern of spider veins.
Any of these five conditions increases your likelihood of developing spider veins.
Hereditary: No amount of good health will prevent you from inheriting your family’s predisposition to spider veins. Varicose veins can run in families, and up to 90% of those who suffer from them do so regardless of sex.
Sedentary Lifestyle: Being overweight or obese puts additional strain on your veins, making it more difficult for blood to flow efficiently through them. Long periods of sitting or standing also put extra pressure on your veins as blood returns to your heart against gravity.
Aging: With age comes a weakening of the vein valves that control blood flow back to the heart. Muscles also lose strength with age. These adjustments will make it harder for your veins to carry blood to their destinations.
Sun Damage: Keeping out of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays is always a good idea, but now you have another reason to do so: they can cause spider veins. Why? Because extended exposure to intense light can cause harm to your skin, especially on your face and other sensitive areas.
Being A Woman: Women are more susceptible to spider veins than men because of hormonal changes that occur throughout puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. Some hormonal contraceptives, hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women, and the strain of pregnancy and childbirth have all been linked to an increased risk of spider veins.
Ways To Address Spider Veins
Spider veins are often harmless, but they can be painful at times. There are also cosmetic reasons why some people would want to treat or remove them. A variety of approaches are available, including:
Compressions Socks Or Stockings
When you wear compression stockings or socks, your lower leg veins are subjected to extra pressure. By increasing blood flow, this pressure can help stop spider and varicose veins from spreading.
Leg edema can be reduced, and the danger of blood clots in the legs can be lowered with compression stockings. You can find compression stockings in a variety of styles, such as:
Prescription compression stockings: The pressure from these is concentrated in the feet and legs. There are a plethora of options, including those without feet and with varying degrees of power. People should not wear prescription compression stockings with heart failure or other heart problems.
Support pantyhose: These are widely available but only exert mild pressure.
Gradient compression stockings and socks offer moderate support for the lower extremities. You may usually find them for sale in specialist shops and drugstores.
Self-Care
To avoid them from forming, your dermatologist should be able to provide you with suggestions on how to improve your circulation. You can find some of their recommendations below:
Periodically, try raising or moving your legs.
You should get up and move about every once in a while if you’re sitting for too long. At least every half an hour.
It would help if you stayed away from hot baths for too long.
Physical activity is highly recommended to improve blood flow throughout the body.
Remember, though, that self-care advice can only help you avoid getting new spider veins; it can’t eliminate the ones you already have.
Laser Treatment
A laser can be used to cure spider veins efficiently. During the process, your dermatologist will specifically direct the laser toward the vein.
The spider veins can disappear once the treatment is done. It may take up to three months for the more prominent spider veins to darken enough to be unnoticeable. A complete clearing may take three or more sessions to occur.
In most cases, patients are back to normal the day after finishing treatment. Some patients receive post-treatment recommendations to wear compression stockings for a predetermined period.
There is an interval after treatment ends during which patients must avoid sun exposure. As a result, the likelihood of developing dark spots is reduced. The risk of developing new spider veins or skin cancer can be reduced by using sunscreen year-round.
Sclerotherapy
Sclerotherapy is an injectable solution used to treat spider veins. The solution causes the veins to close and shrink. Veins seal off and are reabsorbed when they become too narrow to carry blood. Because of the solution’s irritating and dissolving effects on the arterial inner lining, blood cannot reach the area. When veins collapse, the surrounding arteries will continue blood circulation.
Needles of such a fine gauge ensure a nearly painless experience. Sclerotherapy is a non-invasive treatment option that has no significant risks associated with it. When anything foreign is injected into a vein, the inner lining cells of the vein become inflamed, swollen, and damaged. As a result, things will appear worse before becoming better. In about 30 days, most people will feel much better.
The approach may change from patient to patient. This is because the number of necessary treatments depends on factors such as the type of veins being treated, their size, and the number of veins needing to be treated. Sclerotherapy sessions typically take around half an hour and follow a free screening.
Takeaway
Spider veins can be treated in several ways to lessen their visibility or eliminate them. Always get the advice of a doctor or other qualified medical expert before undergoing any medical operation. Contact and visit our clinic, Venustas Immortalis, today if you’re interested in resolving these concerns with the help of our specialists and services.