Treatment of varicose veins with home remedies.

Patients often try to treat varicose veins with folk remedies at home;Based on plant extracts, there are even preparations for external use and oral administration, many of which are positioned as means of completely getting rid of vein diseases.They are widely advertised and sold without a prescription.But, unfortunately, this attitude towards traditional methods in the case of varicose veins is not entirely correct.

Phlebologists do not consider traditional methods as the main method of treating varicose veins of the lower extremities;Traditional medicine can be effective in complex therapies and can only reduce symptoms.

Why don't medicinal herbs cure varicose veins?

The use of various herbal remedies cannot relieve the patient of varicose veins even in the initial stages of the disease.This cannot be achieved by drug therapy or other conservative methods recommended by official medicine.

Changes in the walls of veins with varicose veins are irreversible.And no product of natural or pharmaceutical origin can eliminate these characteristic disorders or at least reliably stop their progression.Currently, there are no drugs that lead to the regression of phlebosclerosis and the restoration of the normal structure of the vascular wall.

In many cases, patients have a hereditary predisposition to varicose veins of the lower extremities.

Factors for the development of varicose veins:

• Genetically determined "weakness" of the venous walls, which in fact can only withstand a normal level of intravascular pressure without consequences.
• A small number of intravenous valves are present in the uterus, which may be a familial or even racial trait.

Of course, all of this cannot be eliminated with the help of herbal remedies or other non-surgical techniques.Therefore, there is no need to talk about curing varicose veins with the help of conservative therapy, no matter what advertising and publications promise.

Improvement of the condition while taking medications or herbal remedies only indicates compensation for the existing venous insufficiency.The length of this remission period depends on many factors.And the continuation of herbal medicine does not at all guarantee a low probability of resumption of symptoms and prevention of the development of complications.

However, herbal products can still be used in the complex treatment of varicose veins of the lower extremities.In addition, some healing extracts formed the basis of several modern drugs.Therefore, patients may refuse to independently prepare decoctions and infusions for oral administration.Many people prefer standardized pharmaceutical products with adjusted dosages, ease of administration and predictable action.

What is the effect of herbal medicine and traditional methods?

For varicose veins, chamomile, horse chestnut, aromatic rue, horsetail, dandelion, meadow lumbago (sleeping grass), bird's knot (knotweed) and several other plants are most often used for medicinal purposes.

Chamomile helps relieve the symptoms of varicose veins in the early stages: it reduces the inflammatory process and the visibility of the affected veins.Chamomile tea and compresses have a minimum of contraindications and can be recommended by specialists in complex therapies.

Dandelion is a popular remedy for varicose veins.The dried roots and stems are added to tea and also in bathing.It relieves mild pain, but has no therapeutic effect.

The effect of folk remedies

Herbal medicine has a limited effect on affected veins:

• Phlebotonic effect: increases the tone of the veins.But do not forget that with varicose veins, the structure of the affected vessels changes irreversibly.In its walls, not only does the amount of connective tissue significantly increase (which is called phlebosclerosis), but the structure of the muscle layer is also altered.Therefore, already deformed veins will give an insufficient response to phlebotonic substances.Its light can be reduced mainly with the help of potent compounds, for example, ergot alkaloids.But the side effects of these herbal medicines will be significant.Therefore, phlebotonic plants are used rather to reduce the severity of venous insufficiency and for preventive purposes.
• Sealing the vein, so the deformation process is somewhat restricted.This effect can be used in complex prevention in people at risk.But it still won't be possible to stop, much less reverse, existing varicose veins this way.
• Antithrombotic and disaggregating effect, which reduces the risk of thrombosis and has a beneficial effect on microcirculation.But this effect can only be expected with sufficiently long use of decoctions and infusions.Furthermore, blood thinning will not occur locally in the varicose vein area, but throughout the body.In some patients, this can lead to complications of other diseases.
• Anti-inflammatory and healing effect, which is mainly manifested in local phytotherapies for trophic ulcers and eczematous venous dermatitis.But without eliminating venostasis (the key cause of these complications), it will not be possible to achieve lasting normalization of the skin condition.

As you can see, the symptoms of the disease will decrease only temporarily, and varicose veins will not disappear completely.

Apitherapy for varicose veins

Apitherapy or “bee therapy” is the use of bee venom and various bee products for medicinal purposes.Recommendations for the use of honey and propolis as compresses for trophic ulcers and the presence of visible varicose veins are quite common.Some also resort to therapy sessions with apitoxins, deliberately getting bee stings on the projection of the most affected vessels.

Honey and propolis in the form of compresses are used to relieve swelling and pain.

Apitherapy is a classic popular method of treating varicose veins of the legs, let's consider the expected effect and the possibility of its occurrence:

• Improving tissue trophism and providing them with vitamins and microelements contained in honey.In reality, there is no improvement: the penetration of the components through the skin is insignificant to speak of a significant therapeutic effect.In addition, a dense mass of honey can clog the pores and thus worsen the condition of the dermis.
• In the presence of a trophic ulcer, the antimicrobial effect of the application of honey compresses.The highly digestible carbohydrates in this bee product can become a breeding ground for opportunistic microorganisms.This can cause exactly the opposite effect, especially in the conditions of skin dysbiosis that occurs with varicose veins and against the background of a decrease in local immunity.
• Anti-inflammatory effect of honey compresses.Yes, honey can reduce the severity of nonspecific inflammation.But in the case of varicose veins, significant changes occur in the wall of the subcutaneous vessel and biologically active substances through the skin are still not absorbed well enough.Honey is a highly allergenic product;local allergic reactions similar to inflammation may develop;this will not improve the condition of the legs.
• Fight thrombosis (with apitoxin therapy), which is explained by the presence of a hirudin-like substance in bee venom.To take advantage of this effect, apitherapists often plant stinging bees in the areas of the veins affected by thrombophlebitis.In some cases, this triggers thrombolysis (resorption of the blood clot).But such an aggressive and not completely controlled effect can cause thromboembolism and increase the severity of phlebitis.
• Improvement of microcirculation under the influence of peptides contained in bee venom.In fact, these biologically active substances contribute to the expansion of capillaries and blood flow to inflamed areas after bee stings.Bee sting sessions can potentially improve the condition of the soft tissues of the legs affected by varicose veins.But apitoxin therapy is also accompanied by inflammation and swelling, which aggravates existing disorders.The wounds that form after the removal of the bite serve as a gateway for bacteria, which carries the risk of developing erysipelas and other very undesirable infectious complications.
• Restoration of venous walls under the influence of bee venom.The peptides and other substances it contains, with repeated bites, modify all the tissues in the area of development of inflammation.The skin thickens, the subcutaneous tissue becomes rougher, the walls of the subcutaneous vessels thicken, and varicose veins become less noticeable.But this does not mean that uneven phlebosclerosis and nodular deformities of veins arising against its background completely disappear.They are only compensated, which is accompanied by a temporary stabilization of the course of chronic venous insufficiency.And valvular sclerosis is not eliminated with apitherapy.

In fact, apitherapy is a very powerful means of traditional medicine, but in the case of varicose veins it is fraught with infectious complications.Restore the walls of the veins with such treatment will not be possible;It is only possible to stabilize the course of the disease and alleviate the symptoms.

Do leeches treat varicose veins?

Leeches have long been used in the treatment of vascular and blood diseases.The risk of thrombosis is reduced and pain is temporarily reduced.

Treatment with leeches (hirudotherapy) is a popular method of treating varicose veins and other vascular diseases, it eliminates symptoms and improves tissue trophism, but the effect is limited in time:

• Reduction of swelling and visible pigmentation.
• Sucking a leech reduces the risk of thrombosis.This is explained by the antithrombotic effect of several substances present in their saliva: the anticoagulant hirudin, the enzymes collagenase and apyrase with disaggregating properties.But the leech cannot act on blood clots that already exist in the veins and does not reduce the likelihood of thromboembolism in thrombophlebitis.Furthermore, proteins from your saliva are broken down quite quickly, so a long-term antithrombotic effect cannot be expected from hirudotherapy.
• Blood sucking by a leech reduces intravascular pressure.This unloading of local blood flow is temporary and cannot relieve the patient from venous stagnation with varicose veins.
• Some substances in leech saliva have a vasodilating effect and cause dilation of small vessels.In some cases, this helps improve microcirculation.Venous insufficiency caused by varicose veins is accompanied by overextension of the final sections of the venous network due to blood stagnation.Therefore, additional expansion of small vessels may not have the best effect on the state of the microvasculature.In the case of spider veins, this effect of using leeches can even make the situation worse.

Currently, hirudotherapy refers more to physiotherapeutic methods than to traditional ones.But phlebologists are still very wary of this treatment due to the high probability of complications - erysipelas.

The venous congestion that develops with varicose veins causes a disturbance in the nutrition of all tissues of the limb, including the skin.The effectiveness of local immune factors decreases, the composition of the microflora on the surface of the epidermis changes.All this is a prerequisite for the development of infectious complications.

Leech suction further disrupts the functioning of the skin barrier.And the open wound after its separation can even become a gateway for pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria.And the most likely infectious complication of hirudotherapy will be erysipelas.Furthermore, proteins from leech saliva are foreign to the human body and can potentially act as allergens.

Hirudotherapy cannot relieve varicose veins of the lower extremities or sustainably compensate for venous insufficiency.Increases the risk of infectious dermatitis and erysipelas.

How to face the disease?

Any conservative therapy for varicose veins is only symptomatic relief.The main effect is aimed at reducing the severity of venous stagnation and correcting complications.No conservative technique can prevent further disease progression and eliminate the root cause of chronic venous insufficiency.

Self-medication is dangerous!

Late visit to the doctor and self-medication for varicose veins significantly increase the likelihood of complications:

• Thrombosis of superficial and deep veins with possible development of thromboembolism.Migrating blood clots close the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack, stroke, and disruption of the functioning of many organs.Pulmonary embolism is one of the deadliest conditions.
• Trophic ulcer, prone to chronicity and recurrence.
• Venous eczema is a severe and prolonged dermatitis with an infectious allergic basis.It significantly worsens the quality of life and can be complicated by erysipelas.
• Spontaneous varicose vein ruptures with risk of blood loss.

In hospitals, varicose veins are treated surgically: the entire affected vessel and its key tributaries are removed (or disconnected from the bloodstream entirely).As a result, the patient eliminates pathological blood secretions, eliminates venous stagnation and improves tissue nutrition.

Currently, patients have the opportunity to choose equally effective minimally invasive intravenous interventions instead of classical operations.These include:

1. EVLO is obliteration of the affected vein (i.e., irreversible closure of its lumen) after intravascular laser treatment.
2. RFO is a destruction caused by exposure to radio frequency waves.
3. Sclerotherapy is the introduction of a special sclerosing drug into the lumen of a vessel, which causes adhesion and subsequent obliteration of the vein.

The treatment method is selected according to indications, taking into account the stage of varicose veins and the presence of concomitant diseases.Uncomplicated varicose veins are usually removed with sclerotherapy or RFO, while advanced ones can be removed with laser technologies. Laser treatment of varicose veins gives excellent results at any stage of the disease.