What causes spider veins?

Dr Alex Vesey is our expert consultant vascular surgeon who heads up our varicose vein team at McKeown Medical. Here, he discusses what spider veins are.

Published by Dr Alex Vesey

Date posted — 25.08.24

Expert Video

Spider veins, or thread veins, are caused by the dilation of small blood vessels near the skin’s surface.

Factors contributing to their development include genetic predisposition, hormonal changes (such as during pregnancy or menopause), and prolonged exposure to sun or extreme temperatures.

Other risk factors include prolonged standing or sitting, obesity, and ageing, which weaken the vessel walls and valves. Spider veins are often seen on the legs and face and are generally harmless but can be a cosmetic concern.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, managing weight, and protecting your skin from sun damage can help reduce the risk of developing spider veins.

We offer a range of treatment options for varicose veins, including VenaSeal™ – the most up-to-date method of treating varicose veins that causes less pain and allows you to get back to normal almost immediately, without the hassle of wearing bandages or compression stockings.

Get in touch with our friendly team, and we’ll help you find the right varicose vein treatment.

Dr Alex Vesey

Our vascular surgery service is led by Dr Alex Vesey. Alex is a highly skilled vascular surgeon with extensive experience in diagnosing and treating a wide range of vascular conditions. With a focus on minimally invasive techniques, Dr. Vesey is dedicated to providing patients with the most advanced and effective treatments for venous diseases, with a particular interest in the treatment of varicose veins.

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We are now well up and running with @sofwave.uk , much to the excitement of the whole team in the clinic (we are all queuing up to get a shot!)

This is a little video of the treatment being performed, so you can see what the process is like and there is even a little early preview of the results at the end. 

One of the best parts is that there is no downtime, so we can still fit it in before Christmas without worrying about redness in the party season!

What do you think?

#sofwave
#sofwavemed
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We're absolutely delighted to introduce you to our lovely new doctor, Dr Sharon. 

With over 30 years’ experience as a medical doctor  and a decade specialising in aesthetic medicine, Dr Sharon brings exceptional skill, warmth and a deeply patient-centred approach to every treatment.

She joins us with extensive expertise in injectables, including advanced toxin and filler techniques, and will also be leading our regenerative aesthetics offering with Ameela polynucleotides and Ameela Exosomes - two of the most exciting developments in skin rejuvenation. She will also be offering Profhilo and Profhilo Structura!
Laser season continues!

Thank you to this lovely patient who has kindly allowed us to share her results. She was particularly concerned about the fine lines and creases around her mouth, and underwent full-field laser resurfacing to target the deeper layers of the skin.

This is just two months after treatment and you can already see a significant improvement in the fine lines and overall skin texture. She’s still a little red and got some more healing to do, but she is already very happy with the improvement. This patient was a bit anxious about having the treatment done, so chose to have it under sedation which means she slept throughout and woke up when it was over! 

What do you think?
It’s been six months since we launched the new toxin Relfydess in the clinic so, how is it going? 

We’ve undertaken a survey of all of the patients we treated with the new toxin in the first month, who are now around six months since their first treatment, to find out more about what they thought of the results over the longer term - whether it kicked in faster, whether it looked better and whether they felt it lasted longer than the previous toxin. 

Here are the results, and the feedback so far is really encouraging with the majority of patients reporting that it kicked in faster, looked better and lasted longer. 

If you’d like to see more detail and analysis of these results, check out the link to the blog post in our profile.
Aesthetic interventions are never far from the headlines and this week the media have been focused on comments made by the make up artist Bobbi Brown about her view of cosmetic procedures. I was on BBC Radio Scotland today talking about the issue. 

My own view is that we should all age in the way we feel comfortable with - if you are happy with grey hair and wrinkles, then I absolutely admire you just as much as  I admire those who feel differently and want a little help to keep the signs of ageing at bay. There is no right and wrong and there is no room for moral superiority. Just you be you! 

Have a listen to the debate and let me know what you think in the comments!

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