Are your fashion choices affecting your health?
It is important to know that your choice of attire and footwear can harm your body. Wearing tight clothes like skinny jeans and walking on high heels can contribute to health issues.
Varicose veins or spider veins are visible blue veins under the skin of one’s legs which usually pop-out due to blockage of blood flow. This condition is very common in around 40% of the population over the age of 30. This group experiences different levels of varicose veins. There are many such cases which are not diagnosed on time or go unsupervised due to complete lack of awareness of the disease.
In today’s time, it is commonly seen that people put significant amount of thought into appearances to express their personality. It is vitally important to know if your fashion habits are harming your body, specifically footwear. Wearing tight clothes like skinny jeans and slim fits can restrict the venous circulation of the legs, causing further stasis of the blood and exacerbating the condition of varicose veins.
Girdle attires are usually tight. Aesthetically they might give you good results, but that will be at the risk of putting a significant amount of pressure on the abdomen, which in the end, is transferred to the leg veins. The pants which are too tight around the waist can also cause compression around the pelvis and increase in abdominal pressure which restricts the normal and healthy blood flow. Revamp your wardrobe and change your clothing lifestyle by avoiding skinny tight jeans and start wearing more comfortable, baggy clothes. If you still prefer wearing skin fit clothes, try outfits which have more elastic material in it.
Now speaking about footwear, an improper pair can cause a lot of health issues, including chronic backache and problems in the veins of legs. If you wear high heels frequently, you are pushing your varicose veins into a downward spiral. High heels change your normal walk, and shift your body weight to your forefoot and toes. This puts the calf muscle under excessive stress and keeps them in the state of constant contraction which leads to suboptimal pumping of the blood thus leading to pooling of the blood in the veins and worsening of the varicose veins
This particular condition is caused because of the faulty valves in the veins which essentially fail to push the blood towards the heart. This failure of the valves, in turn, causes stasis of the blood in the legs and leads to bulging-out of the veins. If not treated on time, varicose veins can cause more than just cosmetic issues. This problem can lead to symptoms like swelling, recurrent cramps, discoloration of the skin, itching and heaviness in the legs.
These veins can sometimes be extremely painful, and can eventually lead to complications like venous ulcers.
The risk factors or sources are many, including obesity, genetics, pregnancy, smoking or tobacco chewing along with the lack of physical activity. Women are more prone to develop varicose veins as compared to men. This condition is often exacerbated by the lifestyle and occupation. People who sit or stand for a longer time are at a major risk of developing this condition.
Alteration in lifestyle goes a long way in coping up with varicose veins. Maintaining healthy habits, keeping yourself physically active and checking the weight helps curb the progression of this disease. Compression stockings provide moderate support to the leg veins and support to push the blood from the veins in the direction of the heart. The use of compression stockings is advisable in the early stages. If you’ve already noticed the signals of venous disease, as spider veins, using compression stockings may slowdown the development to more severe symptoms.
Varicose veins’ treatments have undergone an extraordinary transformation over the years, from open surgical procedures to minimally invasive Laser & Radio Frequency Ablation using heat to close the veins from the inside. Recently glue-like material is used to close the vein by sticking instead of burning, further reducing the discomfort and procedural complications for the patient.
Alternately, spider veins are thin, red-purple veins, very close to the skin, thus appearing quite prominent. These veins can look very unsightly. Newest non-invasive, highly effective techniques like video assisted ‘Exotherme’, can treat these spider veins using topical laser, without any need for injections. Unlike previously used Sclerotherapy, which often used to be a painful experience to the patients.
These latest methods give required results with negligible discomfort and risk to the patient.
This problem can lead to symptoms like swelling, recurrent cramps, discoloration of the skin, itching, etc. The risk factors or sources are many, including obesity, genetics, pregnancy and smoking, along with lack of physical activity. Women are more prone to develop varicose veins as compared to men. This condition is often exacerbated by one’s lifestyle and occupation. People who sit or stand for a longer time are at a major risk of developing this condition.
(The author is a consultant at The Vein Center)