While surgery is often used a means to treat varicose veins, there is self help for varicose veins that is easy and much less costly than a surgical procedure. While surgery is one option for dealing with spider veins, it is not an end-all solution, since secondary channels of blood flow which develop once the varicose sections of veins are removed don’t always cure the problem. Often, a surgical solution will lead to a recurrence. There are much easier, and often more effective ways of helping yourself when you suffer from this ailment.
Self help for varicose veins can include many things, most of which are preventative in nature, but many address varicose veins that have already formed. While herbal treatments, dietary changes and increasing the amount of exercise you do will work wonders, many people do not know the specifics of what they need to do outside of these general guidelines.
A few more specific treatments of self help for varicose veins
- Increasing circulation in the legs and allowing the heart to take a rest by elevating the legs. Just taking the legs above the heart will often decrease swelling, aching and tired feet, legs and muscles in the lower extremities.
- Exercise to increase the strength of the walls and valves of the arteries and veins. When you workout, blood flows with slightly added pressure through your veins, making them work a little harder, and thus making them stronger. If you sit around watching TV all day, your veins and arteries get just as weak as your other muscles. Then they are ripe for malfunction, including bulging, swelling and spider veins due to malfunction of vein valves which control blood flow.
- Change your diet by doing more than just decreasing calories. East more healthy foods, leafy green and fruits, whole grains and less saturated fats and fast food. Your veins won’t get any healthier by gorging on McDonald’s, that’s for sure.
Self help for varicose veins in order to prevent surgery and expense
These are just a few of the reasons you may not need expensive surgery or laser therapy. Alternatives exist that don’t require haggling with your insurance company to try to get coverage for treatment of a ‘cosmetic problem’, or injecting questionable chemical solutions into your body. There are several other specific methods of self help for varicose veins, including changing bathing habits, massage and even yoga, but there are precise practices which you should know.