Most of us strive to take the best care of skin possible. We find the right products and try to manage our lives in such a way as to promote our overall health. This helps to ensure our skin looks as good as it can. Some issues can still creep in despite our best efforts. One of the issues that many people find demeaning are spider veins. The visible veins just beneath the skin are often unfairly associated with an unhealthy lifestyle or only with age. It is true that you are likely to eventually form spider veins, to one degree or another, as they age, but so is everyone. Ill health can contribute too, but there are other risk factors as well. Most people don’t have a firm grasp on whether or not they are at risk for spider veins or not. With that in mind, we’ve got a quick primer on some of the most frequent risk factors that aren’t age.

Hormones
A big factor for many people is simply the natural shifts in hormones over time. Women are more likely to experience these shifts due to a wider range of possible events shifting their hormone levels. Pregnancy and menopause are particularly notable for leading to spider veins in many people. They aren’t necessarily permanent, but they will generally appear. Everyone is subject to the potential for spider veins during puberty, but without further contributing factors this is generally not a notable issue for most people. Some related factors can also cause spider veins due to their effect on hormones. Some birth control pills are capable of raising your chance for spider veins over time. Hormone replacement for postmenopausal women can also potentially lead to the formation of spider veins over time. Try not to worry about any one of these factors automatically meaning you’re doomed to spider veins. They are contributing factors and all typically require other factors in play before spider veins become a notable risk.

In The Family
What makes shaming people for spider veins so shameful itself is the fact that many people can’t control it. Spider veins have a notable hereditary component that makes people far more likely to form spider veins if either of their parents did. In many ways, this is the most annoying factor. You can do many things to change your lifestyle to eliminate so risk factors, but no one can actually change their genetics. If you’re worried, it is advisable to ask both of your parents about spider veins to see if they’ve experienced them. Women, in particular, may wish to clarify with their mothers to see if spider veins appeared during pregnancy or menopause to be sure. Cautious people might also want to consider discussing their overall health with their doctor as a familial history of spider veins is occasionally associated with a risk of blood clots.

Weight
Obesity is a notable contributing factor to many cases of spider veins. This is where ill-health most commonly appears as a factor. The reasons as somewhat complicated, but we’ll try to give you a clear idea. Spider veins are influenced by the distribution of weight and pressure around the body throughout the day. This is why people who are in standing professions tend to form them faster than other professions. Increased weight drops the amount of time necessary for a person to be standing before spider veins start forming. Weight also makes it easier for veins to break or otherwise be damaged. This, in turn, increases the visibility of veins until they appear beneath the skin. This makes living a healthy lifestyle with an eye towards weight management on of the most effective ways of delaying and minimizing spider veins.

It is hard to tell people not to feel ashamed of spider veins. They’re often obvious and in visible places that seem to detract from our appearances. The vast majority of people have or will experience spider veins at one point in their lives or another. Spider veins are generally a cue to take a good look at the state of your life at the moment and see what you can do to help. You should also be aware there are plenty of ways beyond weight management to help minimize the appearance of spider veins. Learning to live a healthy lifestyle and discovering your options for treatment for stubborn spider veins can be enough to help anyone feel more confident about themselves and their body.