YES! In general, symptoms from varicose veins are due to the veins being overloaded and not emptying well. This usually means heaviness, aching, tiredness and swelling.
Most people say the summer months are the worst. This is felt to be due to the body’s natural response to the summer heat. In order to regulate the body temperature and cool off, veins at the surface dilate or enlarge and allow more blood flow to the skin and sweat glands. This keeps the veins full and exacerbates the symptoms. In the winter months the skin is colder and vessels are contracted and less full. This usually makes venous symptoms better.
However, this is not always the case. Walking, and any activity that makes the calf muscle active, empties the veins and relieves the symptoms. In the summer people are more active, so their symptoms may improve. In the winter, people may be less active with more sitting with their legs hanging down filling up the veins, and the symptoms get worse.
So if you have any symptoms of heaviness, aching, swelling, tiredness, even if they get temporarily better during one season or the other, you should have your legs evaluated for a vein disorder.
Our diagnostic ultrasounds are performed in accredited vascular labs by techs with the highest credentials one can have. Procedures are performed in our AAAHC accredited Office Based Surgical Center, a distinction few vein centers in the country have achieved.
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Vein Specialist Dr. David Gardner Draughn, MD, FACS, RVT, RPVI, RPhS is a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine (commonly known as “board certified”).
“All We Do Is Veins, All Day Every Day.”