- Exercise: Exercising impacts your venous circulation and health by augmenting the return of venous blood from your legs to your heart. Many of you see a dramatic reduction in symptoms simply by moving more. Daily walks, cycling, and swimming are all low-impact options to help you reduce the severity of your venous disease.
- Maintaining a healthy weight: Weight loss and a healthy weight are important for your vein health. Extra weight slows the venous blood flow back to your heart. Pooling venous blood in your legs can lead to symptoms like skin irritation, swelling, heaviness, and even pain. Losing those extra pounds can help reduce these symptoms.
- Leg elevation: Standing or sitting for prolonged periods can strain your leg veins and may cause the one-way check valves to fail, resulting in reflux or pooling of blood in your legs. If your veins are struggling against gravity, it’s important to give your circulation an assist. Elevating your legs every day for 30 minutes (feet above your heart) can reduce the severity of pooling and alleviate your symptoms of swelling and pain.
- Be careful about your footwear: Your shoes impact your vein health. Good arch support and a proper fit are important and can boost your vein health. If you enjoy high heels, save them for special occasions. They put a stain on the ‘calf pump’ or ‘heart of the venous system’ causing blood to pool in the legs. Instead, we recommend flats with good arch support to boost the calf pump reducing the strain on your legs and improving your venous blood flow return.
- Compression: Medical-grade graduated compression socks are not what they used to be. Modern compression is fashionable, is easier to put on and remove, improves your venous circulation, and reduces the symptoms of vein disease. By wearing graduated compression hose, socks, and even leggings, your circulation can improve and the severity of your varicose veins will diminish. Where you choose to get your compression matters. At VSS our team helps you select the best hose for your needs, we stand behind our product and offer compression products from Sigvaris the number one compression garment maker in the world.
Adopting these lifestyle changes today and seeing your vein health improve, your symptoms lessen, and give your overall health a boost.
…but what about those vein procedures? Will you need invasive surgery? Not likely.
Vein Procedures Aren’t What They Used to Be
Now that we have reviewed what ‘you can do’ to improve your vein health the next step is to discuss advances in vein care we offer at VSS. With over 25 years in vein care, we have seen many amazing advances which transformed the landscape of varicose vein procedures.
Forget about vein stripping. Even the name sounds scary, right? Those two words were a deterrent to many seeking care for their bad veins. Vein stripping was one of the main methods to treat vein disease until early 2000 and the dawn of minimally invasive vein care.
Today most vein procedures are minimally invasive and can be performed in an office setting using local anesthesia. Our patients walk out with a small compression wrap when done. At VSS your Walk-In, Walk-Out® treatments are designed to meet your individual needs and concerns, It’s easy and comfortable, and there’s little to no downtime. Most patients are back to their normal routine with some basic aftercare instructions from our team, and we’ll ask that you return so we can monitor your progress. That’s it!
There’s Really No Reason to Wait to Get Rid of Varicose Veins
Fear of an invasive procedure with a long recovery period is one reason many people delay care. Plus many don’t understand that without care things only get worse putting your health at risk. Other reasons you may have delayed your care include busy schedules, concerns about how to pay for vein care, or a general fear of medical procedures.
Convenient Access to Care
At Vein Specialists of the South, we offer telehealth and Virtual Vein evaluations in addition to our three convenient vein clinic locations in Macon, Locust Grove, and Warner Robins, GA. These options improve access to care for even the busiest schedules.
Insurance Coverage and Financing
We accept most insurance, and our staff is here to help you navigate your journey. Additionally, if you’re uninsured or underinsured, we offer financing options to help you get care today.
Fear of Medical Procedures
Even when it’s not an invasive surgery, there are some patients who are anxious about any medical procedure. We don’t want the fear of treatment to keep you from getting the care you need. That’s why we offer a variety of options to help you relax, friendly staff, a therapy dog if that fits your fancy, mild oral sedation, self-administered ‘laughing gas’ or nitrous oxide, your favorite music to relax to, and a gentle touch.
