Varicose veins or spider veins come in all shapes sizes and colours now you may not have one yet
but there's a one in five chance that any of us could get one in the future now the question is
are they bad for you should you be worried about them what can you do to help with them
what can you do to prevent you from getting them in the first place and when should you seek
medical advice for them well i'm going to answer all them questions in this week's video now before
we begin let's first learn a little about varicose veins because you might not know what these are
so in short varicose veins most people tend to find them on the back of their legs the back of
their knees their calves their ankles and they appear as small lines which are red bluey purple
in colour and when you press on them they usually don't go so they don't disappear when you press on
them now with time these varicose veins can get thicker they can bulge out a little more and it
can give the skin an appearance of lumping like a lumpy appearance to the skin so the next question
is well what causes these varicose veins well the explanation is quite simple so in our veins
we have these valves like so and they open and close and they prevent the blood from flowing
backwards the wrong way now as we get older our veins become less elastic the muscle gets thinner
and these valves don't work as well so this then results in them valves not working properly not
closing properly and the blood flowing and getting stuck on the wrong part so by getting stuck at the
wrong part it causes that bulging that we're all aware of that you get with varicose veins
and unfortunately once it's happened it can't snap back into place now one way to imagine it i
always say is imagine a balloon okay you've blown a balloon up really really big and after a while
the air comes out but it never goes back to where it first was the size and the shape it first was
it always stays a bit stretched so imagine the vein like so so that bulging and that blood
forming behind the valve causes the balloon to grow so the vein to grow and then if it goes as
well it never goes back to its original size and shape this is one of the reasons why sitting for
long periods can make the blood pool and put you at a higher risk of getting varicose veins
so we're going to talk about that a little later as well now in addition to this there are various
other factors that put you at a higher risk of getting varicose veins as well unfortunately
females are more likely than males to get varicose veins in the future another cause as well is
pregnancy so women who have been pregnant again are at a higher risk of eventually developing
varicose veins another factor to mention is being overweight if you're overweight you're going to
be at a higher risk of getting varicose veins and also if you have high blood pressure which isn't
controlled so your blood pressure is high it's not controlled you're not taking medication for it and
it's not being controlled you're going to be at a higher risk of getting those varicose veins also
to mention abnormal blood vessels some people have abnormal blood vessels which puts them at
higher risk of getting varicose veins and lastly there is a genetic link as well if some of your
family members have it you are probably going to be a higher chance of getting varicose veins in
the future but saying all of this the good news is that varicose veins are usually nothing to
worry about and there's many things that you can do to help treat it and to help prevent it from
happening in the first place now that we're done with all that scientific stuff let's move on to
the treatments and preventative stuff so the first thing that we can all do to try and treat varicose
veins is to lose weight look if you are overweight you are going to be at a much higher risk of
getting varicose veins or having varicose veins so the best thing that i would recommend to everyone
is to check your bmi if you haven't already i'm going to leave a link to a bmi calculator
in the description below it's really easy to use you just pop your gender in you put your weight
in you put your height in and it calculates your bmi and tells you what your weight status is if
it's normal then great if you are overweight then please do consider trying to lose weight
all that excess weight isn't going to help with those valves that we spoke about earlier and it's
going to put you at a higher risk of getting varicose veins or if you already have have
them it's going to make them worse as well so you need to try and lose weight if you are overweight
now the next thing i want to discuss as well is i do have quiet videos on how to lose weight if
you are interested in losing weight these videos have had over 20 no 12 million views i think and
it's all on studies based in oxford on scientific approaches on losing weight they're really simple
to follow so if you are interested in learning how to lose weight and if you do need to lose weight
please feel free to click on that link up there or in the description below moving on to the next
tip for almost instant relief try elevating those legs look you know the background of why varicose
veins happen you now know all about the valves if you're going to be sat down for long periods you
need to try and elevate those legs lift them up as high as you can to try and get that blood to go
backwards so it's not getting stuck behind those vowels like we spoke about earlier this is going
to make a massive difference on those varicose veins if you currently have them or if we're
trying to prevent them which moves us on nicely to the next point i want to discuss look if you're
doing those leg raises if you're keeping your legs raised try doing some simple stretches as well one
of the most simple stretches you can do i don't have a towel unfortunately but if you had a towel
and you had your legs sort of raised and trying to get it in the shot get the towel over your leg
like so and pull that way it's going to stretch the calf muscles and it's going to help move that
blood it's going to help circulate that blood and help you to prevent getting varicose veins and
help with the symptoms of varicose veins at the moment now another point i'd like to discuss is
exercise if you can do exercise on a daily basis at least 20 to 30 minutes a day this is going to
be fantastic for your varicose veins or helping to prevent them from happening in the first place we
need to be doing things like leg exercises such as running such as jogging strength training as well
that involves the legs all of these are really really good scale that blood flowing now if you
can't do them if you're going to struggle to do them it's completely fine don't worry about it
any exercise is good so if we go swimming if we do yoga anything like that is just as good as well so
try and incorporate those into your lifestyle and if you want more information on exercises
and how to live a more healthy lifestyle i do have a video all about this it's a two-part series and
if you're interested in incorporating more of a healthy lifestyle for yourself from balanced diet
to sleeping right to socializing to mental clarity to the exercise to the stretches everything that
you need to know is in this video that i've done recently i am going to link it up here and in the
description below if you're interested i would definitely recommend that you give it a watch
moving on to the next tip if you're someone who sits for long periods then you need to
do something about it because this is going to make those varicose veins worse it's going to
put you at higher risk of getting them as well so like i said we need to do the stretches which we
spoke about we need to lift the legs as well which we spoke about but try and get into the habit of
getting up and going for a short walk going for a little five minute walk going up and down some
steps do something get some movement in so always think to yourself when you sat down for about 10
to 20 minutes whether you're in the office or the home office because a lot more people are
working from home think to yourself have i moved my body yet always keep asking yourself that maybe
write a little note have you moved your body yet and that means just get up go for a quick walk a
two to five minute walk up and down the steps to get that blood flowing this is going to make a
massive difference because we know all about those valves and how it can pull we don't want the blood
to pool in those valves behind those valves which cause that bulging so we need to get some movement
so i'm going to ask you again have you moved your body yet now the next thing that i'd like to talk
about are compression stockings compression we all know is pressure stockings come with
stockings or socks whatever you prefer and they come in different sizes and colors so they're
really really helpful for people who already have varicose veins or if you want to prevent yourself
from getting them in the future so if you've already got them they can help to stop them from
getting worse or you can wear them to prevent you from getting them in the future if you're
worried about it now the best advice i can give for compression stockings is always speak to your
healthcare professional about them that is the best recommendation don't go and buy some online
because you don't know the size you need you don't know the compression class that you need so always
have a word with your healthcare professional and they will be able to advise the best stockings
the best compression socks or stockings that are more appropriate for you please do speak to your
healthcare professional don't just go out and buy it and lastly if you've got varicose veins and
they don't cause you any pain or any problems but you just don't like the way that you look
unfortunately there are no treatments that are on the nhs at the moment to get rid of them because
this is seen as more of a cosmetic thing but there are many private healthcare professionals that can
help with these such as injecting a solution that helps dissolve them to get rid of them
there's many different treatment options available i will leave more information about these
in the description below if you are interested to learn more so now that we've covered varicose
veins what they are what causes them how to treat them how to prevent them the next thing i want to
discuss with you is when to seek medical advice look the most important thing about varicose veins
if you have any pain from them if they're causing you difficulties sleep if they're causing any sort
of pain speak to your healthcare professional so they can find out what is causing the pain
this is the most important thing don't just start taking painkillers without speaking to your health
care professional because all you're going to be doing is masking those symptoms and there could be
something very severe going on so any sort of pain special healthcare professional if your healthcare
professional says it's all fine then do take those pain because paracetamol can be quite helpful but
like i say always beats your healthcare professionals so they can make sure that
it's also safe and suitable for you to use that medication now another point i'd like to discuss
with the varicose veins is if you do have them get into the habit of checking them daily have a look
at them daily make sure they're not changing much make sure they're not bleeding because if varicose
veins start bleeding they can cause very deep bleeds and it can be quite difficult to treat
so get into the habit of looking at them regularly and if there's any changes again
speak to your healthcare professional about it and lastly the main thing i want you all
to remember is one any sort of pain around the leg region any sort of unexplained pain that you get
speak to your healthcare professional any swelling that you get around the legs and causes any pain
again speak to your healthcare professional urgently this is the most important thing that
you remember any pain or swelling or redness any of the three one of the three speak to
your healthcare professional so you can check it out and find out exactly what is going on thank
you for watching this week's video you are now a varicose vein pro you now know all about why they
happen what to do about them how to treat them how to prevent them and when to seek medical advice
if you have any of your own tips please leave a comment below because i'd love to read them
and i'm sure people watching this video will too and as always always remember that you're
awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video
make sure to click that like follow or subscribe button now to stay up to date with new weekly
videos