Varicose veins are a problem for tens of millions of people. For some, it’s simply an aesthetic issue while for others it can be painful. The cause of varicosities is within the veins themselves. Your veins are the highways through which blood returns from the far reaches of your body back to your heart. In order to make sure the blood moves only towards the heart, your brilliant body has installed millions of miniature one way vales within your veins to prevent back flow.
With varicose veins, these one way valves start to fail and blood flows back, which results in blue veins, disfigurement and pain. The question is, why did the valves begin to fail? The primary reason is age, prolonged standing or a sedentary lifestyle. Your cardiovascular system was designed for frequent movement. The heart alone does not have the strength to effectively circulate all of your blood and it requires the contraction of your leg muscles to squeeze your veins (like a pump) and help move your blood back to your heart. Therefore, when one is not moving enough, the blood pools in the veins and those ingenious but tiny back-flow valves can’t handle the pressure and they fail.
