You know the unsightly green, bluish, root-like thingy that you often can see on the inner side of the wrist, calves or inner arm area? It's called varicose veins.

Definition

Varicose veins are veins that have become enlarged and tortuous. When pressure is exerted on the veins, the valves that's supposed to prevent backflow of the blood will be damaged and the blood flows back, thus making the veins bigger and visible. Not so nice to see eh?

I have heard of my teacher's neighbour who's in her golden age, and has this serious, critical varicose veins on her legs. It bulges, big like the lime tree's roots. Then one day she was having her shower, the veins just burst out and she only realized it seconds later and passed out. There was a pool of blood around her after that. Scary huh? I don't know what happened to the poor lady after that though.

So ladies, especially those who use pumps, sky-high killer heels to work, read this and listen to me: IT'S NOT WORTH IT RISKING YOUR LEG'S APPEARANCE AND POSSIBLY, YOUR LIFE FOR LOOKING EXTRA GOOD FOR 8 HOURS EVERYDAY. Wearing heels ruins the backbone too, you know? I wear wedges now stead of heels, I find them very comfortable and I know I won't trip or get off-balance with them and I only wear them sometimes, about once a week. Other than that, sandals or flats. Comfortable, easy to wear and mostly, won't give you ugly varicose veins.

I found this great article on how to prevent it at Totalbeauty.com!

There are 2 ways mentioned on preventing them, one is keep your calf muscles toned or two, wear compression hoses if your feet hurt from standing. That's really smart!

Let's just assume that we already have an S.O.S case with varicose veins and needs help, consider Sclerotherapy (injecting a chemical solution into the vein with a hair thin needle) is the main treatment, but lasers are used in specific circumstances. If they are causing you pain or you just want to get rid of them, talk to your doctor. I've heard of SMC here in Kota Kinabalu (Damai there) offers some injection on removing varicose veins and it sure costs thousands, around RM5k I think, according to my friend.

So let's us all heed the advice and prevent varicose veins from now on!