Can You Prevent Spider Veins?
Spider veins are very common, especially as we age, and they aren’t 100 percent preventable. But there are several things you can do to lower your risk of developing them. The first step is to book an appointment with a vein doctor who can look at your veins with ultrasound machines. This will determine whether you have anything like Chronic Venous Insufficiency, faulty vein valves, or blood clots that could elevate pressure in your veins.
Treating underlying issues is essential to preventing the damage that appears at the surface of the skin. After consulting your doctor, you can make lifestyle adjustments to keep your venous blood pressure low and enhance your circulation. It’s important to note that these tips, especially compression stockings, aren’t advised for everyone. Here are some things your vein specialist might recommend.
- Get daily exercise if you’re able to.
- Elevate your legs above heart level while you’re resting.
- Change positions often if you have a sedentary job.
- Lose weight if your vein doctor recommends it.
- Wear compression stocking if your doctor recommends and sizes them.
Can a Board Certified Vein Doctor Prevent Spider Veins?
A vein doctor can’t prevent all spider veins. They run in families and are often caused by uncontrollable factors like gender, aging, and hormone changes. But a vein doctor can prevent certain spider veins from developing if they identify and treat Chronic Venous Insufficiency. It’s a common, underdiagnosed disease that involves valve failure within a vein.
When valves fail, blood accumulates in the vein and elevates pressure. This causes tiny new blood vessels to branch out from the overburdened veins. These new, spindly vessels are spider veins. You might notice that they often form in clusters with several branches. The branches are dead-ends that don’t lead back to the heart, so they’re useless to circulation. When vein doctors treat Chronic Venous Insufficiency, they not only erase existing spider veins, but also prevent new ones from forming from that faulty valve.
What Are the Risk Factors for Getting Spider Veins?
There are several risk factors for spider veins, some of which can be minimized with lifestyle adjustments. Here are the most common predictors of spider veins.
- Family history of spider veins
- Chronic Venous Insufficiency
- Female gender
- Pregnancy
- Menopause and other hormonal fluctuations
- Hormonal birth control
- Aging
- Weight gain
- Inactivity
- Sedentary jobs
What Are the Risk Factors for Untreated Spider Veins?
If you don’t treat your spider veins, they might not cause any problems. But some people develop symptoms that affect or even disrupt their lives. This is especially true if you have Chronic Venous Insufficiency. Small facial spider veins might result from sun damage or squeezing a pimple. But spider veins in the legs often signify venous insufficiency. Here are the possible risks that develop when people don’t treat spider veins or varicose veins.
- Cramping
- Leg heaviness
- Swelling
- Itching
- Restlessness
- Venous Stasis Dermatitis
- Profuse bleeding
- Venous ulcerations
- Hyperpigmentation
- Undetected blood clots
What Are the Best Options for Treating Spider Veins?
Spider veins don’t require surgery, unless there are other issues being treated at the same time. So, the best spider vein treatment is often a minimally invasive procedure. The right method for treating spider veins always depends on the patient’s medical history, symptoms, vasculature, and goals. For many patients, injecting sclerosing solutions is the quickest and gentlest way to erase spider veins. A sclerosant is like a detergent. It bubbles up and irritates the vein walls enough to make them close. The irritant isn’t painful to the patient.
Sclerotherapy doesn’t use heat or incisions, so there is no anesthesia required. Vein doctors simply position the needle where it’s needed and inject the sclerosant into the vein.
For larger or deeper veins, doctors might use ultrasound guidance to administer sclerotherapy. They might also use a method called mechanochemical ablation. This involves a tiny catheter that releases a sclerosing solution into the vein and also rotates to disrupt the vein’s walls. This method is more common for varicose veins than spider veins, as they are larger, bulging veins. Another option for spider veins is radiofrequency ablation. Doctors position a tiny catheter in the vein and insert a fiber through it which they heat with radiofrequency. This causes the vein to seal shut. For small, facial veins, a doctor might also use a surface laser. But lasers aren’t recommended for everyone, especially people with sensitive skin.
Does the Treatment Method Affect How Fast the Vein Fades?
All minimally invasive procedures work quickly. They close the vein right away, and then it takes a few weeks (up to a few months for large veins) for the vein to disappear. The healing process varies by patient, but within a week, the vein should begin to fade. More invasive treatments like vein stripping surgery take longer to heal, so there can be swelling and bruising for a while. But with minimally invasive procedures, some patients have no bruising or swelling. Others have only a mild version that goes away in a day or two.
Do Minimally Invasive Procedures & Sclerosing Solutions Last?
Minimally invasive procedures like sclerotherapy are faster to administer than surgery. When done correctly, they also last longer. There’s a chance of the vein growing back if it’s surgically cut out of the body. But with minimally invasive treatments, the vein is sealed shut within the body. It can’t grow back. One reason it’s important to see a qualified vein doctor is that patients can develop new spider veins in the same area if they have untreated Chronic Venous Insufficiency. The best doctors check for that issue and treat it to prevent additional vein damage. A cosmetic vein specialist or dermatologist might lack the tools to find the source of your spider veins. So, visit board certified vein doctors in California for permanent results.