Have you noticed a few varicose veins or spider veins and then thought, “Hey…I don’t have to worry about them…they’re not serious, just a cosmetic issue, right?
Wrong. These swollen veins are more than unsightly. They’re the symptoms of a deeper disorder that afflicts more than 26 million Americans – vein disease. And as New Orleans vein specialists, we know that vein disease is more serious than you think.
The five facts you need to know about vein disease
- Varicose veins and spider veins are the visible symptoms of a much bigger problem with your circulatory system. They are usually an indication of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a condition in which the tiny valves that keep blood flowing back to your heart and lungs have become “leaky,” and are no longer functioning properly. This allows blood to flow “backwards” and pool in the veins, which is what causes them to swell and become discolored. CVI is a major failure of the circulatory system that impairs your overall health.
- Left untreated, “merely cosmetic” varicose veins can quickly get much worse, and escalate into a series of painful and crippling side effects. First you’ll start to experience chronic tiredness and weakness, followed by chronic swelling in the legs and ankles that can become so painful you cannot stand or walk.
- If you still fail to seek treatment, varicose veins can lead to the development of leg ulcers – open wounds and sores that bleed, are painful, and that refuse to heal because the underlying cause is not on the skin but beneath it.
- Varicose veins increase your risk of other, more serious vein diseases, such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a condition in which blood clots form in the deep veins of your legs. These clots impair your circulation even if they stay where they formed, but the real danger is if they travel through the veins to your brain (where they can cause a stroke) or your lungs (where they can cause a pulmonary embolism). Both conditions are potentially fatal.
Untreated varicose veins greatly increase your risk of developing other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
So don’t make the mistake of thinking of varicose veins as “merely cosmetic”
Don’t let these facts really “keep you up at night” as we’ve suggested in the title of this article. Instead, give the best vein doctors in Covington a call and schedule a venous health screening. These screenings take only a few minutes and are completely painless and non-invasive, but they can detect vein disease before it leads to the dire side effects we present above. And if problems are found, they can be treated in the comfort of our New Orleans vein clinic using minimally-invasive procedures so gentle they often don’t even require a local anesthetic. For more information, check out the other articles we have provided on our website.
