Varicose veins & Herbal remedies

[Kev880]

Wife is suffering with Varicose veins, she has been to Docs and Hospital but they dont want To know.
Just wondered if anyone has tried any of the Herbal remedies such as Horse Chesnut ,Grape seed or Pine Bark tablets and if they offered any relief?

[Slink]

snake oil.

IIRC varicose veins are cause by the valves in the vein not working, so blood doesnt travel just one way and causes them to go all varicosie

[rog007]

If they're causing genuine discomfort then a trip to a GP may provide an outlet got treatment; you may have to shop around. If it's purely cosmetic, then the NHS may not be interested. An option then is to go private to see if they can be removed. Good luck!

[Kev880]

Have been to GP and was referred to hospital and is going back to be measured for support compression stockings but hospital is not interested in removing them at the moment!
Anyone have any idea how much it costs to have them removed privately?

[mattikake]

Varicose-ness is caused by valve failure and subsequent blood pooling in the veins.

I know of clients and my dad who have have lower-leg vein removal (my dads was for a tripple heart bypass). All suffer with lower leg pain and muscular fatigue bigtime. Walking long distances and/or sustatained exercise is a real problem. They will never recover completely. So FYI removal of a vein irreversably affects circulation, muscle function, mobility, fitness... particularly if it's a major one. No doubt the doctors know this.

Consider the functional effects next to the cosmetic.

Varicose veins only occur due to a lack of veinal pressure. This is usually due to a lack of muscular fitness as fit, strong and myogenically sound muscles naturally aid veinal pressure by providing physical support around the veins for your natural blood pressure to push against.

Concentration of muscular fitness is the natural, only, proper solution. Anything else is a lazy shortcut to the superficiality of image and will get duely appropriate and deserved results. i.e. It should be a last resort not a vain one (as it were! )

Edited by mattikake on Saturday 2nd March 00:49

[BlackVanDyke]

Surgery for varicose veins isn't trivial... I'd try the support stockings first if I was her. If they continue to be painful then I'd expect that the medics would then look at surgery.

Stay off the woo - you'd get far more benefit from using that money to make sure you've got as healthy a diet as possible and maybe something like a spa day for relaxation occasionally.