What causes varicose veins?
One clear factor is heredity. Most patients who suffer from varicose veins have a family history of the condition. Another factor is hormonal changes that specifically affect women. Pregnancy or birth control pills further increase your chances of developing vein disorders. Other contributing factors include prolonged standing, being overweight and/or trauma to the leg.
The normal function of leg veins is to carry blood back to the heart. During walking activity, the calf muscle acts as a pump, compressing the leg veins and forcing blood back towards the heart. To prevent blood from going in the wrong direction, veins have one-way valves valves that prevent blood from flowing backwards down the leg. If the valves are faulty (a condition known as valvular incompetence), blood flows back into superficial veins and down the leg. This process is known as reflux. Reflux results in veins enlarging and becoming varicose. Once veins become varicose, they lose their ability to snap back into their correct shape, and become more plastic rather than elastic. Varicose veins unfortunately cannot heal themselves, and this condition is either stabilized with compression hose, or managed with one of the vein treatment plans. The greater saphenous vein is one of the most frequently damaged veins that leads to varicose veins in the leg.
The most important factor predisposing to varicose veins is a strong history of similar problems occurring in other blood relatives, such as mothers and aunts. With such a family history, individuals presumably inherit weakened valves in the superficial veins of their legs and under the right set of conditions, the veins become tortuous and dilated. Typically, factors that seem to predispose to the development of varicose veins include jobs which require prolonged standing or conditions which result in increased pressure within the abdomen, such as pregnancy or recurrent constipation.
The normal function of leg veins – both the deep veins in the leg and the superficial veins – is to carry blood back to the heart. During walking, for instance, the calf muscle acts as a pump, contracting veins and forcing blood back to the heart. To prevent blood from flowing in the wrong direction, veins have numerous valves. If the valves fail (a cause of venous reflux), blood flows back into superficial veins and back down the leg. This results in veins enlarging and becoming varicose. The process is like blowing air into a balloon without letting the air flow out again- the balloon swells. To succeed, treatment must stop this reverse flow at the highest site or sites of valve failure. In the legs, veins close to the surface of the skin drain into larger veins, such as the saphenous vein, which run up to the groin. Damaged valves in the saphenous vein are often the cause of reversed blood flow back down into the surface veins.
Varicose veins occur when veins are not properly returning blood from the lower leg to the heart. All veins have valves that open to allow the flow of blood to the heart and close to prevent back flow (otherwise know as “reflux”) of blood to the foot. When valves fail to function properly, blood leaks through and flows down the leg in the wrong direction. The blood overfills and distends the superficial veins under the skin, resulting in the bulging seen in varicose veins.
