Varicose Veins - What Are They?

Some Basics...

Most of us know at least one person who has varicose veins - those lumpy, purplish or bluish bulges that appear most commonly on the legs and ankles of men and women alike, usually on the backs of the legs or on the calves.  For many people, while unsightly, they are not too painful while for others, they can become almost crippling.   What exactly are varicose veins?

Before we head off into a definition, let's take a look at some basic information about arteries, capillaries and veins - commonly called blood vessels.  These blood vessels are the tubes which transport blood around the body.  Your heart is a pump and its job is to pump blood into the vehicles which will get nutrients to the body.  Arteries are the major carriers out of the heart and they branch off into smaller and smaller blood vessels or veins until the blood is flowing through the capillaries.  Since capillaries are so thin, nutrients coming from the blood can easily pass through to the tissues of the body.  These blood vessels also serve to carry waste products of the metabolism into the "waste management system, so they are something like a highway, going in two different directions, carrying nutrients and waste.

Capillaries join together to form small venules, which join together to form small veins and eventually these small veins all flow into one of the two major veins of the body - the superior vena cava (from the upper body) or the inferior vena cava which carries blood from the legs, pelvis and abdomen.   Venal blood is darker than arterial blood because it has less oxygen in it.

Varicose Veins, Defined

It is these veins, usually the inferior vena cava, which can become varicose, a word which comes from the Latin root "varix", meaning twisted.  The reason the inferior vena cava vein is most commonly varicose is because standing upright and walking put pressure on the blood vessels of the lower body.  When the valves within the veins, which prevent the blood from flowing backwards, malfunction, then the vein becomes twisted and the blood collects in the vein, causing swelling.  This condition is what we commonly call varicose veins.  Carl Arnold Ruge is credited with having first defined varicose veins as "any dilated, elongated and tortuous vein irrespective of size".  The good news is that they can be treated without any serious harm and varicose veins, while uncomfortable, are not generally life threatening.