Your veins didn’t just come of no-where. There are many causes of vein problems. Your parents and your grandparents are major culprits. If any of them had varicose veins or spider veins, chances are you will get them too. In fact, if one parent has varicose veins, your risk is one in two. If both parents have varicose veins, then your chances of developing varicose veins are 90% or more!
Age is also a factor: the older you get, the higher the risk. Just because you don’t have any vein problems at 40 years of age doesn’t mean you won’t later in life. In fact, your risk goes up dramatically after the age of 60.
Women are more likely than men to get varicose veins probably due to hormones. Women who get pregnant stand an even greater risk. This is due to the pressure of the baby on your pelvic veins, which causes the veins to fail.
Other causes are lack of exercise, a sedentary lifestyle, injury or trauma to your legs, or poor ankle movement, which prevents the calf muscle from pumping blood up to your heart. (And yes, wearing high-heel shoes will reduce good ankle motion.) Obesity, though not yet proven to be a cause, will worsen vein disease.
