Varicose Veins and Family History

You may have heard that varicose veins are a genetic predisposition (that means they run in the family), and you may know that in your family tree were several sufferers, but don’t be hopeless and heartbroken just yet. It might not be quite the harsh sentence, as it seems. For every varicose veined individual there is perhaps a back-story. I will gladly explain, but first, may I ask your indulgence by shortening the two words ‘varicose veins’ to vv? I won’t have to type it, you won’t have to read it, but we’ll both know it’s there. OK? Thanks very much.

Allow me to start with an example:

Mary is four months pregnant, and she fainted last weekend. She was taken to the emergency room and passed a few routine tests and the ER doc said that perhaps it was the heat or another variable that made Mary faint, but she was perfectly fine, to go home and not worry about it. There was one fact the doctor didn’t know, though, and that was that Mary had a great- great grandmother that lived during the civil war and fainted all the time. Has the doc slipped up?

NO! Why? You remember Gone With the Wind, right? Ladies wore hoop skirts and corsets. Corsets are like super girdles that used long laces to make the corsets tighter and tighter around the midsection. A fashionable girl of the period would have the thinnest waist around, and we’re talking fifteen or sixteen inches! Of course the poor dears fainted! So, the doc is probably right about Mary, and she lived happily ever after.

So, let’s try a vv question, OK? Sally is an athletic and happy girl who is afraid she will develop varicose veins, like her great-grandmother and grandmother have. Her Mom, however, never developed any. Mom says don’t sweat it! Is she right?

YES! Mom saw Sally’s great- grandmother wear tight elastic garters every day to keep her stockings up. Sally’s grandmother wore a tight girdle that just about cut off circulation above the knee. Sally’s mom wisely decided she’d never do that to her legs and she has the non-vv leg to prove it.

Let’s see how smart you are on this one. Ms Glume says that there are vvs all over the family tree. She says there is nothing to do for it, she is doomed to vvs so might as well accept it. Is Ms Glume’s fate sealed?

YES! And that’s probably the only thing she’ll get right for the rest of her life.

OK, here’s a mind-bender. Bobby’s mother’s side of the family has a lot of trouble with varicose veins; his father’s side does not. What is Bobby’s fate?

DEPENDS! It sounds like Bobby has a 50/50 chance. Bobby could certainly up his chances by making the right lifestyle changes early and sticking to them! Keeping active and exercising, not smoking, staying away from salts, fats, starches, eating lots of fiber, fruits and veggies Bobby every chance of not getting the old VV!