VARICOSE VEINS TREATMENTS

If the veins are small, you may be able to reduce or hide them. Taking a cool bath or putting cold compresses on your legs can temporarily shrink swollen veins. And you can make them less visible by wearing cover-up makeup on your legs or darkening your skin with fake tanning lotion. Some herbal experts recommend taking horse-chestnut-seed extract or gotu kola to strengthen vein walls and reduce swelling, but there are no good studies to back them up. If you're really bothered by the symptoms, you can try wearing support stockings (Medistrumpf, for example). These thick elastic leggings, which you can order at the pharmacy, are tight at the ankles and grow gradually looser farther up the leg. They keep blood from pooling by squeezing your legs from below and providing support for surface veins.

If you're determined to get rid of your varicose veins for good, you can have them surgically removed in an outpatient procedure that requires only a local anaesthetic. Another technique, called sclerotherapy, is less intrusive and is effective in treating small veins. The doctor injects a saline or detergent-like solution into each vessel, causing it to collapse and shrivel up, and rerouting the blood to other, healthier veins. Both treatments are relatively quick and painless, with minimal scarring. But if you're prone to varicose veins, they may show up again elsewhere, and neither procedure is cheap.