Varicose Veins STINK

 Yesterday I had appointment #3 (which was super fun- it's like "girl time" with some cool ladies who also happen to be providing me awesome prenatal care).  I'm happy my uterus measured exactly where it's supposed to be- in past pregnancies I've been a week or week and half behind, and that's always depressing to find out your due date is off.  But my due date is right on, and that made me happy!

Anyway, here is the promised post about my varicose veins.  I'm genetically doomed from the start to have varicose veins, but that doesn't mean they can't be managed.  When I'm not pregnant, they are still there, but they don't hurt.  (Varicose veins don't go away- although you can get them surgically "stripped". I have no idea what that means but I may look into it after I'm done with childbearing.)  The hormones that help make your whole body loosy-goosy and more elastic as you prepare to deliver a baby also affect your veins, causing them to bulge more.  And that can make them HURT.  But I have found ways to manage them to where the pain only happens on few and far between days, or even not at all.

Go to any doctor with your varicose veins, pleading for help, and they will hand you a prescription for compression hose.  I'm going to be hugely pregnant in this summer. Who wants to wear compression hose on 100 degree days? Not me.  There ARE effective ways to manage this common problem.

 So what I do is pretty basic.  But it basically consists of four parts: 

physical exercise, nutrition, herbal, and rest.

1) Exercise

 This is the MOST important for keeping my veins from hurting day to day.  I take a 20-60 minute walk or just put on music and dance for 20-40 minutes. If you're laid over by morning sickness or on bed rest, flex your ankles in bed for 20ish minutes. I do have a treadmill, but only use it as a last resort if I really want to walk but can't get out that day.  This gets my blood moving and less likely to pool in my bulging veins, preventing pain.  I exercise at least every other day, but I try to do it every day to really be a step ahead of my veins. If I let three days pass without exercising, my veins will hurt.

2) Nutrition

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”- Hippocrates

This is the most important for preventing new varicose veins from developing and current ones from getting worse. I majored in Nutritional Science at college, so this was the natural place for me to start when I was looking for ways to manage my veins. The secret is a compound called rutin. Rutin + vitaminc C = strong vein walls, making the veins less likely to bulge, and become varicose.  I don't take a supplement; rutin and vitamin C are both readily available in regular foods.  They are power partners in fighting varicose veins! 

You can do research to find all the sources of rutin there are, but I eat about a tablespoon of cracked buckwheat 3 or 4 mornings a week, along with a vitamin C-rich fruit.  Buckwheat is a great source of rutin, as are the whitish piths of oranges (which I also eat when I eat my orange; it's an easy way to get rutin and vitamin C at once).  

A great example of a good rutin/vitamin C rich breakfast would be hot buckwheat cereal (which I think is really gross, so I just add about about a tablespoon of buckwheat to my oatmeal or cream or wheat), with some strawberries on top.  Some mornings I'm rushed, so I'll just eat a tablespoon of raw buckwheat along with a kiwi, strawberry, or orange.  I buy Bob's Red Mill Buckwheat Cereal- it's already cracked, not whole like buckwheat groats, so it's easier to incorporate in my diet.  You can also get buckwheat seeds and sprout them and eat the sprouts.  

You can get way more creative than that, though- have a sandwich with buckwheat sprouts and red pepper slices (peppers are an amazing vitamin C source). Or use buckwheat flour to make pizza crust and load your pizza with fresh veggies (fyi- vitamin C is destroyed by cooking though, so be sure to eat some fresh veggies or fruits along with your pizza).  Do some research and find out what sources of rutin and vitamin C are out there that YOU like and incorporate them into your daily diet.

There's a lot of ways to get rutin, and that's the key to strengthening the vein walls to keep varicosities from developing: rutin + vitamin C. And you don't have to eat them at the same time to be effective.  

(By the way, buckwheat is a fruit, not a grain- isn't that interesting? It is completely wheat free, and is fine for those with celiac disease, wheat allergies, or gluten intolerance.)

3) Herbal

  I only drink herbal tea once in awhile, but when I do I make sure it has nettles, red raspberry leaves, and oatstraw in it (I get my herbs in bulk and make my own teas), which are all supposed to be good for veins.  Rose Hips are good to add, too. This is the "cherry on top" of my regimen- it's frankly the least important, and it won't save my veins if I'm not doing the first two things, but it's a good way to ensure I'm doing all I can to fight my veins!

4) Prop those feet up and REST

Each day try to find time to prop your feet up with pillows and just rest for about 20 minutes.  Sometimes all the stars will align for me and I'll be able to take a good hour long nap like this.  But even propping your feet up and chilln' for 20 minutes is great for your veins. 

And when all else fails, I put on a compression stocking.

  

During pregnancy #4 (during which I did this little regimen of mine) I only had to resort to compression hose about 4 different days, which was amazing, considering that during pregnancy #3 I wore them every day from 6 months on until I delivered (I didn't do anything to manage my veins during that pregnancy, which was the first pregnancy where my veins became a painful problem that needed attention).  So I consider my regimen working (at least for me!).  If you try any of these suggestions, I'd love to hear how they helped you!

Also, just as a side note, be aware that if you live in a hot climate, your veins will be worse- they come to the surface of your skin to help cool your body (this happens to everyone, but to those of us that have varicose veins it can make it harder for us to manage them).  But considering that I was living in Vegas, with 115 to 120 degree summers during both pregnancies #3 and #4, this regimen can still be VERY effective, even if you are living somewhere super hot or humid.