Varicose veins affect countless men and women across the globe. They are so common among professionals who must work while sitting down or standing up for several hours. Also called varicosities, these abnormal veins occur due to poor blood circulation. Varicose veins can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. When they show symptoms, there can be pain, fatigue, swelling and restlessness in the legs.
Varicosities should be treated early even if they don’t have symptoms. So, get in touch with a good vascular doctor NYC as soon as possible and start the treatment process. As well as getting medical help, there are simpler actions you can take to alleviate the discomfort they cause. For instance, you can try exercise for varicose veins at home.
How do varicose veins look like?
These are swollen, twisted and enlarged veins that develop under the skin surface. They appear bluish and mostly appear in legs. Although varicosities affect people who are over fifty years old, any adult is at risk. It happens when normal blood flow in the veins is interrupted. One thing that can cause this is damaged valves in the veins. These are one-way valves that open to let venous blood pass and close to stop it from flowing backward.
When they are weakened or damaged, they don’t close properly and this allows some of the blood to leak down into the veins. In other words, one develops a condition called venous insufficiency or a venous reflux disease. The more the blood pools in the veins, the higher the chances that it will lead to the development of varicose veins. Once these develop, the victims have to see a reliable vein doctor NJ.
How to manage varicose veins through exercise
Moderate exercise for varicose veins increases blood flow, which can reduce the pain and change how the veins look. Additionally, the right exercise can slow down or prevent the appearance of new varicose veins. One thing that a vein doctor NJ can advise you to do is to workout gently and to stop right away if there is too much pain or discomfort. There are a number of exercises you can do to improve your varicose veins symptoms. These include:
- Walking regularly
The easiest and quickest exercise to do if you have varicosities is walking. It is also the most effective sort of workout and it keeps your legs in constant movement. A simple workout goes a long way to increase blood circulation in the veins. If you have this health condition, make sure you walk every day. This includes climbing up and down the stairs even when you can use the elevator. Even if you can drive yourself to work, you should avoid the car sometimes and take a walk to your workplace if it is not too far away. By making these small efforts on a daily basis, you can improve your condition and avoid calling your vein doctor NJ all the times.
- Peddling your legs
This is a perfect exercise for varicose veins. It can reduce the existing abnormal leg veins and stop others from forming. If your legs are always feeling tired, you should try the peddling workout. Lie down on your back and keep your hands at your sides or under your buttocks. Elevate both legs in the air and start peddling them as if you were on a bicycle. The act of raising legs is super helpful when it comes to boosting blood circulation. So, aim to lift them as high as possible while peddling.
- Do leg lifts
These are not the same leg lifts they would have you do in the gym to firm your buttocks and thighs. Instead, these are meant to enhance blood circulation all over the legs and improve your varicose veins. So, lie down on the floor, support your back, place your hands beneath your buttocks and lift one leg at a time. Keep the lifted leg raised and perpendicular to the ground. Once you feel the blood flowing from your feet to the leg and thigh, release it and lift the opposite one. Repeat this exercise for varicose veins with each leg at a time. To complete this workout, lie down and raise your legs against a wall. Ensure that the legs are perpendicular to the ground and maintain this posture until the blood circulation in your legs gets better.
- Hold on tiptoes
This is another great exercise for varicose veins. So, sit up straight and hold on tiptoes. Hold this position for a few seconds and place your feet down. Repeat this simple workout as many times as you can when working in the office. This easy exercise is thought to stop varicose veins from bursting and it is a good one for those who work while standing. Once they take a seat they can do it to reduce their leg strain and boost blood circulation. This can help them stay away from their vein doctor NJ for a while.
- Flexing exercise
This exercise is done while lying down on your back on the floor. Gradually lift one knee to the chest while keeping your calf bent down. At the same time, roll your ankle as severally as you can, ensuring that you do it steadily and forcefully. Alternate your leg and repeat as many times as you can.
- Go for a swim
Swimming is an excellent exercise for varicose veins. It ensures that your legs are horizontal while your muscles are working out. Also having fun in the water might cause full body relaxation.
Things to note
Although exercising can increase blood circulation in the legs, which can improve your varicosities, there are certain kinds of exercise that could worsen the condition. Although exercise for varicose veins can strengthen your leg muscles, which help the veins pump blood back to the heart against gravity, you should select them carefully. Here are the workouts that a reputable vein doctor will ask you to avoid:
- Jogging or running
Running and jogging can help you lose weight and develop stronger leg muscles. However, these high-impact workouts could make your varicose veins more swollen. If you want to do this still, try jogging on a softer surface to reduce the impact on your veins and joints. As well, wear your compression stockings when jogging on top of a softer surface.
- Lifting weights
Weight lifting is not a good exercise for varicose veins. It increases abdominal pressure and strain, and both of them can affect how the blood flows out of your legs to the heart and lungs. Weightlifting will cause the blood to pool in the veins, which will cause pressure build-up, vein dilation and valve damage. If you must lift weights, use lighter weights while raising your legs above your heart’s level or at the same level with your heart. Don’t hold your breath while lifting weights. It is also a good idea to ask your vein doctor NJ about your safety when lifting weights. If they stop you from lifting, just obey.
Other types of exercises you must avoid when you have varicosities include squats, crunches, lunges, sit-ups, and yoga exercises that require you to hold a given abdominal posture for too long.
What if my legs hurt a lot and I cannot exercise?
It can be that your varicose veins are too painful and are preventing you from doing any type of exercise. In such a case, you may want to exercise, yes, but fail to do so because of the fear that your pain will worsen. If you are facing this, do the following:
- Get compression stockings that are fit for your condition. Ask your vein doctor NJ to prescribe the best compression stockings. The most helpful are the knee-high stockings. They are usually good enough as far as squeezing your veins and improving blood circulation. Make sure that you are wearing them when you must stand up or sit down for several hours. They can also be so useful during pregnancy.
- Even if you love wearing high-heeled shoes, your vein doctor NJ might caution you against wearing them when you have varicose veins. High heels raise your foot too high and this reduces the pumping action of your calf muscle and impairs the blood flow in your veins.
- If your varicose veins are painful, rotate your ankles and rock your foot back and forth on the floor. This is a quick and easy foot exercise for varicose veins that will increase blood circulation in the calf area and prevent blood clots. This exercise can be done when traveling in a plane or if you have to sit down for a long period of time.
- If you are obese, drop some weight. That’s because the extra pounds you carry around will normally put a lot of strain on your leg veins and this can worsen existing varicose veins.
More tips to manage your varicosities
One thing no one can object is that a visit to a vascular doctor NYC is a must when you have varicose veins. Unlike spider veins that can appear and disappear without treatment, large and swollen varicose veins do not. They require treatment in order to address the underlying cause, which is poor blood circulation due to damaged one-way valves in the veins. Untreated varicosities can eventually be difficult to treat.
If you start having venous leg ulcers, venous eczema, DVT, phlebitis and related complications, it means that your venous insufficiency condition has worsened; it has become chronic. So, even as you do exercise for varicose veins, do not hesitate to see a vein doctor NJ for medical examination and treatment. If they discover that you have varicose veins, they will eliminate them and try to address the underlying cause. Some of the best ways to treat varicosities are sclerotherapy, radiofrequency ablation, and endovenous laser ablation. All of the three are minimally invasive techniques that do not cause severe side effects and a longer recovery time.
If your vein doctor NJ picks the right technique and performs it well, the odds of failure are so low. Sometimes they will combine two methods at once to eliminate varicose veins. As you can see, going to a vein treatment centre is important because you can receive medical help while doing exercise for varicose veins. If less invasive treatments fail, your vein doctor NJ might suggest surgical techniques. Vein stripping and ligation is one of these techniques and it will only be selected if there is nothing else a doctor can do to treat your vein.
During this surgery, the vein will be tied and pulled out through small incisions. Hence, the problematic vein will be removed from your body for good rather than being sealed off and left behind to be absorbed by the body tissue. Even if the human body has a lot of veins, stripping surgery cannot be done each time you have a problematic varicose vein. It is always a last resort. An advanced vein doctor NJ such as Dr. Michael Nguyen is known to offer newer methods of treating varicose veins, including Venaseal(vein glue) and Clarivein.
How to prevent varicose veins
Once your current varicosities are treated, you will want to do everything to keep others from forming. Unless you are genetically predisposed to these, there are simple things you can do daily to prevent them from forming or worsening. One of these is exercise for varicose veins. Make sure you do all the exercises we have recommended in this article and avoid the unsafe ones.
Next, control your diet so as to lose excess weight and stop straining your leg veins. A diet that is low in sodium and high in fibre is thought to be good for vein health. Make sure you adopt this sort of diet. Once you leave your place of work, raise your legs above the heart level to reduce ankles swelling and boost blood circulation. Finally, take regular breaks when working to avoid keeping the same posture for several hours.
If you do all the above, you are highly likely to recover from your vein problems. However, don’t cut ties with your vein doctor NJ as you might need them again in future.