Elevating Your Legs and Peforming Leg Exercises

For mild and early cases of chronic venous insufficiency, elevating your feet above your heart level whenever you are sitting or lying down can help the pooled blood to drain. Elevate your leg for 15 to 20 minutes about 4 times daily.

Unless you are obese, or suffering from heart disease and hiatal hernia, you can also elevate the foot of your bed approximately 9 inches to help blood to drain during the night.

Avoid long periods of sitting or standing. If you are taking long flights, remember to flex and extend your legs, feet, and ankles about 10 times every 30 minutes to facilitate blood flow in the veins.

Compression Stockings

Compression or elastic stockings work by squeezing the vein and helping to keep the blod flowing away from the extremities of the limb and back to the heart.

These special stockings have varying or graduated pressure along the height of the leg, with tighter fit at the bottom of the leg. This is because the ankle and calf veins are under greater pressure than the rest of the leg veins and need more support.

Stockings do tend to give quick relief from chronic venous insufficiency symptoms. However, they have the following drawbacks:

• It does not cure chronic venous insufficiency, and the symptoms may get progressively worse over time.
• If improperly fitted, elastic stockings can cut off circulation to the lower legs.
• These stockings need to be worn all the time and can get uncomfortable throughout the day.
• Specially fitted stockings can be expensive and need to be replaced about four times per year.

Prescription Cream

To alleviate the itching and cracking of the skin, your doctor may prescribe an anti-itch cream containing hydrocortisone and moisturizer. To prevent infection, he may also prescribe a zinc oxide cream or an anti-fungal cream.

For skin sores, compression bandages can be applied to protect the skin and promote blood flow. For infected ulcers and cellulitis, antibiotics are prescribed.

Vein Surgery

Depending on the position and depth of the vein, various forms of vein surgeries can be performed to unblock blood clots that form in the vein, bypass faulty veins, as well as to repair faulty vein valves.

Herbal Supplements

Studies have shown that various herbal supplements can be used to naturally treat chronic venous insufficiency. These herbs include:

Japanese pagoda tree (Sophora japonica)

Studies have shown that Japanese pagoda tree extracts, with the active ingredients of rutin bioflavonoids, can improve vein wall tone and strength, increase microcirculation, reduce swelling, improve elasticity, and fix vein permeability. Numerous clinical studies, involving more than 2,000 patients, have shown that Japanese pagoda tree extract can provide substantial relief from the swelling, aching, leg pains, and other discomforts of CVI.

Horse chesnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)

Horse chestnut has been used for many decades as an herbal preparation for various vein conditions. It has been shown to reduce inflammation and improve the vein wall tone to facilitate blood flow back to the heart. It is thought to fix microscopic leaks in tiny veins and capillaries, as well as reinforce the strength of the vein walls and promote their elasticity.

A 1996 study involving 240 patients showed that horse chestnut extract is just as effective as elastic stocking in providing relief from the swelling and pain of varicose veins and chronic venous insufficiency.

Butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus)

Butcher's broom extract has been used for many years as a traditional medicine for treating vein disorders. In the 1950s, studies on Butcher's broom discovered that it can strengthen and tone veins, as well as lessening swelling and inflammation.

In treating chronic venous insufficiency as well as varicose veins, butcher's broom has been found to relieve not only leg pains, but also swelling, itching, numbness, cramping, and the "heavy" sensation in the leg.