How Do Varicose Veins Form?

Varicose veins have formed on your legs, and you do a little research — perhaps you scour the Internet or talk to friends. While you’ve gathered a lot of information about how to get rid of them, you’re still not sure how they got there in the first place. 

Here at the Vein Institute at Upper East Side Cardiology, we tend to focus on removing varicose veins instead of how they got there, mostly because Dr. Satjit Bhusri and our team are so excited about our quick-and-easy vein removal options. So, we’d thought we’d take a moment and step back to explore how varicose veins form.

Veins, in general

Since we’re getting back to basics, let’s first review the broader picture when it comes to the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. 

You can break your blood vessels down into three main categories:

1. Arteries, which deliver blood from your heart to your body
2. Veins, which deliver blood back to your heart
3. Capillaries, which are small vessels that connect veins and arteries

At any given moment, most of the blood — about 75% — is in your veins, making the journey back to your heart and lungs to pick up oxygen.

The veins in your legs and your second heart

The veins in your legs have, arguably, the toughest road, as they have to push blood back up to your heart, facing considerable challenges in the form of distance and gravity.

That’s why these veins rely on what we call your second heart, which refers to the muscles in your calves that squeeze your blood vessels to send blood flowing upward. This action helps both the deeper veins in your lower legs, as well as the superficial ones toward the surface, to keep your blood circulating.

Varicose veins — when blood stalls

Alongside the muscles in your calves, your circulation also counts on tiny, one-way valves in your veins to keep blood flowing up. These valves close as blood passes through, preventing it from spilling backward.

In most cases, varicose veins form when these valves weaken and malfunction — they don’t close all the way and your blood stalls. When your blood pools and builds, it places more pressure on the vein, which can engorge the blood vessel and force it toward the surface of your skin.

The good news is that varicose veins typically form in the superficial veins in your lower legs, which are only responsible for about 10% of the circulation duties.

The bad news is that, once a varicose vein forms, it doesn't usually go away on its own. In some cases, varicose veins that form during pregnancy can fade away, but typically, varicose veins in most people are usually there to stay.

And this brings us back to our Vein Institute, which offers several minimally invasive treatments that can hit the reset button in your lower legs by clearing away varicose veins.

If you have more questions about where varicose veins come from or you’d like to explore your treatment options, please contact our New York City office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan by clicking here, or you can call us at (212) 752-3464.