June 9, 2024 • 12 mins
Dr Mel chats to Sammy Rose about the non-invasive treatments available for the appearance and physical discomfort associated with varicose veins.
The R-Clinic is a modern integrated medical aesthetic clinic located in Canberra. They offer the most advanced and state-of-the-art treatments and technologies for aesthetics and skin, varicose veins, hair loss and women’s health concerns.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I need ten or fifteen skirts from Calvin Kleive.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Sometimes I would buy bog instead of dinner.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I just felt it said.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Taylor Talk with your host Sammy Rose. Today's
podcast is about barrack hos veins. They're very common in
women and can often be quite painful from what I've heard,
But what many of us may not know is that
they are treatable. So speaking to us today about the
treatments available to help with your parents and the pain
associated with varicus veins is doctor Mel, the lovely Doctor
(00:30):
Mel from the Art Clinic here in Canberra. Welcome to
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello, thank you, thank you Samie for having me today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Now, I know you're very busy and we like to
kind of get straight to the point here at Taylor Talk.
So tell me for anyone who might not know, what
are varicus veins.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay, so I like it. We'll get straight to the point.
So ericus veins essentially their sauce or bloot. They saws
that kind of sits under the scheme that are bulgy
or what they call enlarged and swollen, and sometimes they
look a bit twisty and they tend to have this
(01:09):
kind of bluish purplely color, and someone they can look
b red, and not only they look enlarge and swollen.
They can someone be be tended to touch. And these
are typically found kind of on the legs or on
the feet. Okay, So if we want to be a
little bit more medical, so varicus veins are kind of
(01:32):
a conditioned part of a condition what we called chronic
venus insufficiency. So S and M suggests it kind of
describes the vein kind of being a chronic condition, and
that's where the veins are insufficient in kind of performing
its main job. So give example, so we all kind
(01:52):
of most of us will know that healthy veins, they've
got all these kind of tiny little one way valve
that helps our blood flow up against gravity back to
the heart. Okay, but varicus veins happen when these kind
of valves in the veins are kind of damaged or
(02:13):
they stop working, they become leaky. So then this say,
she causes the blood to flow back down the leg
due to gravity and kind of pull in these veins.
So with this kind of increasing pressure, the veins stretches out,
so they become quite large and dilated, but they also
get stretches out longer, so they become more extended. And
(02:34):
obviously our legs don't grow with the veins as they
get stretched out, so that's why they become toisty and
toistia over time. And you'll be surprised that all these
increase in build up pressure with these kind of pulls
or blood in these veins is actually the major cause
of a lot of symptoms that you correctly mentioned that
(02:55):
the people have with varicus veins.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So can they get quite painful, doctor mil.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yes, yeah, so these varicas veins can be quite painful
for a lot of people, and it can cause a
lot of other symptoms like aching as they can be throbbing,
and they can get this kind of burning leg pain
and yeah, yeah, I know. And a lot of times,
no people even don't even know that it's actually one
of the common calls for restless leg as well at night. Yeah, yeah,
(03:24):
so you can actually get restless leg symptoms as a
result of these kind of chronic pulling, all the pressure
built up in veins. You get the itchiness, the heaviness,
the crampiness that goes with it, and they tend to
get worse towards the end of the day or after
like you might's say, you've been standing for long periods
over time as well.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Okay, so is it ivarico's veins? Are they quite common?
I mean I'm sure. I mean you deal with patients
every single day. Is it something that lots of people
come to you and are quite insecure about and that
you see often?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yes? So, very good question. So varicus veins actually are
very common and as more common than people think. So
give you maybe I'll get into a little bit more stats.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So give you a little bit more it love some numbers.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, So I mean if you look at the kind
of all the women's and men's across world age group
in general, it's about thirty percent of women and men
of all ages. Yeah, it's quite common. So who get
vericas veins and they're typically is kind of in the
age group between kind of thirty five to sixty five,
(04:29):
and in particularly for women's is actually more common than
men for women's to have vericus veins, and women tend
to have the veins a bit earlier in life as
well compared with men. So give a little bit more stats.
So we're talking about usure three to one dominance in
terms of new About twenty five percent of people with
(04:51):
ercus veins are men only and the rest are women.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, so what treatments would you say? I know, you
guys have got them there at the arg You've got
heaps of things, But what treatments are available? So they
are they are treatable to an extent.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yes, yeah, so there are definitely treatable with the current
modern technology we have. So I guess to some extent,
the treatment really depends on the kind of the cause
of erica's veins, and I guess where these problematic valve
sits in their legs, how big, how tall, true, and
(05:26):
how severe these veins are. The treatments really can vary
from compression stockings alone all the way to surgery. Okay,
so I'll explain a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
The compression therapy alone often involves just wearing compression stockings,
and they're often suited for people who have really kind
of early on erica's veins and absolutely no symptoms at all.
And these are for people who are kind of who
want to prevent the veins from getting worse over time.
(05:59):
We all we will know as we age they do
get worse, which I can now explain a little bit
more about the progression of it later, but getting back
to the treatments. In terms of the treatments on the
other spectrum, you have surgery. So surgery often means stripping
out the veins and ligating the veins, and that's kind
of the second line option now for a lot of
(06:22):
the veins we see nowadays. The more common now are
all the minimum invasive treatment options and if you think
they're really at the moment, the most popular as under
three categories. So you have visually these therapy. So this
is where we would inject a drug or a solution.
(06:43):
In the old days could be I hope, a very
salty like what they call hypertonic sailing, and nowadays we
more commonly inject like a detergent drugs into the veins.
And what it does it actually irritates a vein lining
and cause the vein to collapse and eventually, through information healing,
the veins fade away. So that's Clara. You have the
(07:05):
kind of the second option what we call thermal ablation.
So this is where we talk about you know, you
hear people talking about that lasers, the r IF, the
radio frequencies. So this is where we use heat to
actually seal the effected veins. So that's where the laser
or what they call the endo venous laser blation evalas
(07:26):
or the radio frequency ablation kind of sits under. They're
just basically we use different energy source. No, with the laser,
we use the lighter energy with the radio frequency, we
use this heat to treat these veins. Okay, But therefore
under the second category where we talk about the thermal
ablation or the heat treatments, then you fother kind of
the third one where you talk about the gluru ablations.
(07:49):
That's where we will just kind of eject the medical
super glue directly into the vein and that will then
seal the vein to close these veins. And these are
what we classify as minimum minimally invasive procedures.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So with these doctor mel like, is there a time commitment?
Is it kind of a you know, you walk in,
you walk out, it's done once, or like do you
do it gradually? What kind of time commitment are they
looking at?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah? So so for in terms of depends on the
treatment options obviously, and everyone is different in terms of
what they what we propose as the best triment combinations
for them. Let's say if someone purely needs just glow
therapy injections. Okay, so these are often a procedure that
(08:36):
takes about forty five two half sorry forty five to
an hour each session, and people walk in walk out.
They don't take any time off work really normally and
for and this is kind of done in stages. So
most people may need between one to three sessions per
leg to treat these veins, and the sessions are usually
(08:58):
about three to four week apart.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Okay, so it's kind of gradual.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yes, it's gradual. So whereas people with having oblations, you know,
the heat treatments or the glue treatments done, it's kind
of again it's gradual. It's kind of in two stages.
Usually often people will come in to have the heat
treatment done, and they may because it can be a
little bit more uncomfortable. Then they're just pure injections, so
(09:26):
they tend to take the day off and they'll they'll
commit to coming back for a review usually a week after,
and once that's looking really good, then we move on
to the second stage, where often does involve some tarting
up with injections. So that's usually what happens.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, doctor mel if someone is listening to this and
you know, and I know I've got friends that are
insecure about America's veins. I know my mum is insecure
about hers. Who like, how does the process start? Do
they just book in a consolet with you at the
art clinic?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yes, so americal questions. So what happened is if anyone
is concerned about the veins or they're even just not
sure what to do with the veins, because surprisingly lots
of people think very because they are cosmetic. Actually, in
fact they're not. It is a very it's a very
medical conditions and it can be potentially very serious because
(10:25):
people actually can get bleeding, they can get ulcers, they
can get infections, they can get clots in them. So
that's why I don't matter where in terms of where
they are, whether you know you're getting pain or not.
If your lessons are concerned about the veins, I would
then suggest no, they can ring up or they can
(10:45):
email us to book and appointment at any initial consultation.
We and we mean in terms of eye, my sonography,
my notes. We all it works a team. We do
a very detailed kind of assessment and scan to find
out exactly what causes the veins, and then we will
be formulating like a really kind of customized plan to
(11:09):
talk about what best to treat these veins, and we'll
provide lots of education about it. And the process can
take anywhere between. The consultation takes anywhere between an hour
and anine and a half, so people do have to
put the time aside. It's not a quick fund that
the consolet is you coming and you'll be like you know,
you'll be questioned by the questions, you'll be standing there
(11:31):
getting scanned. So but this, this we find is the
best way to give people a really good I guess,
informations and education about where they stand with their veins,
and then they can make a decision what they want
to do, provided they get their informations about what the
treatment are available and what the best evidence space options
(11:53):
are for them.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Perfect well, doctor mel it has been an absolute pleasure
speaking with you, and thank you so much for educating
us on the treatments available with Varkus veins and speaking
us through the process. We really appreciate it. Thank you
so much, No.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Thank you so much for your target as well. Thank
you appreciate it, Sir
I need ten or fifteen skirts from Calvin Kleive.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Sometimes I would buy bog instead of dinner.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I just felt it said.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Taylor Talk with your host Sammy Rose. Today's
podcast is about barrack hos veins. They're very common in
women and can often be quite painful from what I've heard,
But what many of us may not know is that
they are treatable. So speaking to us today about the
treatments available to help with your parents and the pain
associated with varicus veins is doctor Mel, the lovely Doctor
(00:30):
Mel from the Art Clinic here in Canberra. Welcome to
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello, thank you, thank you Samie for having me today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Now, I know you're very busy and we like to
kind of get straight to the point here at Taylor Talk.
So tell me for anyone who might not know, what
are varicus veins.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay, so I like it. We'll get straight to the point.
So ericus veins essentially their sauce or bloot. They saws
that kind of sits under the scheme that are bulgy
or what they call enlarged and swollen, and sometimes they
look a bit twisty and they tend to have this
(01:09):
kind of bluish purplely color, and someone they can look
b red, and not only they look enlarge and swollen.
They can someone be be tended to touch. And these
are typically found kind of on the legs or on
the feet. Okay, So if we want to be a
little bit more medical, so varicus veins are kind of
(01:32):
a conditioned part of a condition what we called chronic
venus insufficiency. So S and M suggests it kind of
describes the vein kind of being a chronic condition, and
that's where the veins are insufficient in kind of performing
its main job. So give example, so we all kind
(01:52):
of most of us will know that healthy veins, they've
got all these kind of tiny little one way valve
that helps our blood flow up against gravity back to
the heart. Okay, but varicus veins happen when these kind
of valves in the veins are kind of damaged or
(02:13):
they stop working, they become leaky. So then this say,
she causes the blood to flow back down the leg
due to gravity and kind of pull in these veins.
So with this kind of increasing pressure, the veins stretches out,
so they become quite large and dilated, but they also
get stretches out longer, so they become more extended. And
(02:34):
obviously our legs don't grow with the veins as they
get stretched out, so that's why they become toisty and
toistia over time. And you'll be surprised that all these
increase in build up pressure with these kind of pulls
or blood in these veins is actually the major cause
of a lot of symptoms that you correctly mentioned that
(02:55):
the people have with varicus veins.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So can they get quite painful, doctor mil.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yes, yeah, so these varicas veins can be quite painful
for a lot of people, and it can cause a
lot of other symptoms like aching as they can be throbbing,
and they can get this kind of burning leg pain
and yeah, yeah, I know. And a lot of times,
no people even don't even know that it's actually one
of the common calls for restless leg as well at night. Yeah, yeah,
(03:24):
so you can actually get restless leg symptoms as a
result of these kind of chronic pulling, all the pressure
built up in veins. You get the itchiness, the heaviness,
the crampiness that goes with it, and they tend to
get worse towards the end of the day or after
like you might's say, you've been standing for long periods
over time as well.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Okay, so is it ivarico's veins? Are they quite common?
I mean I'm sure. I mean you deal with patients
every single day. Is it something that lots of people
come to you and are quite insecure about and that
you see often?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yes? So, very good question. So varicus veins actually are
very common and as more common than people think. So
give you maybe I'll get into a little bit more stats.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So give you a little bit more it love some numbers.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, So I mean if you look at the kind
of all the women's and men's across world age group
in general, it's about thirty percent of women and men
of all ages. Yeah, it's quite common. So who get
vericas veins and they're typically is kind of in the
age group between kind of thirty five to sixty five,
(04:29):
and in particularly for women's is actually more common than
men for women's to have vericus veins, and women tend
to have the veins a bit earlier in life as
well compared with men. So give a little bit more stats.
So we're talking about usure three to one dominance in
terms of new About twenty five percent of people with
(04:51):
ercus veins are men only and the rest are women.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, so what treatments would you say? I know, you
guys have got them there at the arg You've got
heaps of things, But what treatments are available? So they
are they are treatable to an extent.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yes, yeah, so there are definitely treatable with the current
modern technology we have. So I guess to some extent,
the treatment really depends on the kind of the cause
of erica's veins, and I guess where these problematic valve
sits in their legs, how big, how tall, true, and
(05:26):
how severe these veins are. The treatments really can vary
from compression stockings alone all the way to surgery. Okay,
so I'll explain a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
The compression therapy alone often involves just wearing compression stockings,
and they're often suited for people who have really kind
of early on erica's veins and absolutely no symptoms at all.
And these are for people who are kind of who
want to prevent the veins from getting worse over time.
(05:59):
We all we will know as we age they do
get worse, which I can now explain a little bit
more about the progression of it later, but getting back
to the treatments. In terms of the treatments on the
other spectrum, you have surgery. So surgery often means stripping
out the veins and ligating the veins, and that's kind
of the second line option now for a lot of
(06:22):
the veins we see nowadays. The more common now are
all the minimum invasive treatment options and if you think
they're really at the moment, the most popular as under
three categories. So you have visually these therapy. So this
is where we would inject a drug or a solution.
(06:43):
In the old days could be I hope, a very
salty like what they call hypertonic sailing, and nowadays we
more commonly inject like a detergent drugs into the veins.
And what it does it actually irritates a vein lining
and cause the vein to collapse and eventually, through information healing,
the veins fade away. So that's Clara. You have the
(07:05):
kind of the second option what we call thermal ablation.
So this is where we talk about you know, you
hear people talking about that lasers, the r IF, the
radio frequencies. So this is where we use heat to
actually seal the effected veins. So that's where the laser
or what they call the endo venous laser blation evalas
(07:26):
or the radio frequency ablation kind of sits under. They're
just basically we use different energy source. No, with the laser,
we use the lighter energy with the radio frequency, we
use this heat to treat these veins. Okay, But therefore
under the second category where we talk about the thermal
ablation or the heat treatments, then you fother kind of
the third one where you talk about the gluru ablations.
(07:49):
That's where we will just kind of eject the medical
super glue directly into the vein and that will then
seal the vein to close these veins. And these are
what we classify as minimum minimally invasive procedures.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So with these doctor mel like, is there a time commitment?
Is it kind of a you know, you walk in,
you walk out, it's done once, or like do you
do it gradually? What kind of time commitment are they
looking at?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah? So so for in terms of depends on the
treatment options obviously, and everyone is different in terms of
what they what we propose as the best triment combinations
for them. Let's say if someone purely needs just glow
therapy injections. Okay, so these are often a procedure that
(08:36):
takes about forty five two half sorry forty five to
an hour each session, and people walk in walk out.
They don't take any time off work really normally and
for and this is kind of done in stages. So
most people may need between one to three sessions per
leg to treat these veins, and the sessions are usually
(08:58):
about three to four week apart.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Okay, so it's kind of gradual.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yes, it's gradual. So whereas people with having oblations, you know,
the heat treatments or the glue treatments done, it's kind
of again it's gradual. It's kind of in two stages.
Usually often people will come in to have the heat
treatment done, and they may because it can be a
little bit more uncomfortable. Then they're just pure injections, so
(09:26):
they tend to take the day off and they'll they'll
commit to coming back for a review usually a week after,
and once that's looking really good, then we move on
to the second stage, where often does involve some tarting
up with injections. So that's usually what happens.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, doctor mel if someone is listening to this and
you know, and I know I've got friends that are
insecure about America's veins. I know my mum is insecure
about hers. Who like, how does the process start? Do
they just book in a consolet with you at the
art clinic?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yes, so americal questions. So what happened is if anyone
is concerned about the veins or they're even just not
sure what to do with the veins, because surprisingly lots
of people think very because they are cosmetic. Actually, in
fact they're not. It is a very it's a very
medical conditions and it can be potentially very serious because
(10:25):
people actually can get bleeding, they can get ulcers, they
can get infections, they can get clots in them. So
that's why I don't matter where in terms of where
they are, whether you know you're getting pain or not.
If your lessons are concerned about the veins, I would
then suggest no, they can ring up or they can
(10:45):
email us to book and appointment at any initial consultation.
We and we mean in terms of eye, my sonography,
my notes. We all it works a team. We do
a very detailed kind of assessment and scan to find
out exactly what causes the veins, and then we will
be formulating like a really kind of customized plan to
(11:09):
talk about what best to treat these veins, and we'll
provide lots of education about it. And the process can
take anywhere between. The consultation takes anywhere between an hour
and anine and a half, so people do have to
put the time aside. It's not a quick fund that
the consolet is you coming and you'll be like you know,
you'll be questioned by the questions, you'll be standing there
(11:31):
getting scanned. So but this, this we find is the
best way to give people a really good I guess,
informations and education about where they stand with their veins,
and then they can make a decision what they want
to do, provided they get their informations about what the
treatment are available and what the best evidence space options
(11:53):
are for them.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Perfect well, doctor mel it has been an absolute pleasure
speaking with you, and thank you so much for educating
us on the treatments available with Varkus veins and speaking
us through the process. We really appreciate it. Thank you
so much, No.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Thank you so much for your target as well. Thank
you appreciate it, Sir
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