0:03

Welcome to stuff mom never told

0:05

you. From how Supports dot com.

0:12

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen

0:15

and I'm Caroline, and today we're

0:17

talking about a health issue

0:19

that Caroline, I have reread

0:22

it over since childhood. Oh

0:24

god, what I know. Most children probably

0:26

don't freat over very coast veins. But

0:30

my mom was adamant

0:33

that I not cross my legs

0:36

because of the old wives tale,

0:38

as it turns out that if you cross your legs

0:41

you'll get very coast veins. Because and

0:43

I don't know if she'd be cool with me sharing

0:45

this with the world, but she has very

0:47

coast veins and underwent surgery for them. It

0:50

was super painful and really uncomfortable,

0:52

and she was always embarrassed about how her legs looked.

0:55

So she channeled that

0:58

insecurity and you

1:00

know, straight up health concern, loving

1:02

health concern to to me.

1:04

So I've always been nervous

1:07

about that. And I'm I just realized

1:09

that I'm sitting at the podcast table

1:12

with my ankles crossed, which is okay, not

1:15

one leg over the other. Now, I'm I'm sitting

1:17

like a man spreader right now because my I

1:19

T band is messed up. So I've got one leg

1:22

like way over to the side as

1:24

a way to try to stretch it out as I sit for

1:26

two hours as we record podcasts.

1:28

But what kind of surgery did she have for it?

1:31

You know, I'd have to go

1:33

back and ask her, But I

1:35

just I remember when she had it. It

1:37

might have been a scalare therapy procedure,

1:40

which we will explain later

1:42

in the podcast. But I just remember.

1:45

Um I was in elementary school, I

1:47

think when she got the surgery, and I remember her being

1:49

laid up in bed for a while afterwards

1:52

because she couldn't really move around

1:54

much. And I was very strange hatting my

1:57

mom, you know, on bed

1:59

rest, because she was such a you

2:01

know, she was always doing everything. It

2:04

was like one of the rare weeks when she wasn't well.

2:07

My mom has not

2:09

vericoas veins, although I think she has

2:12

some. My mom has an interesting

2:14

vascular thing going on that's on her

2:17

legs and on her forearms. And

2:19

I'm hoping that by virtue of the fact that we

2:21

have a large intelligent audience, maybe

2:23

somebody knows the answer to this. But her

2:25

vein problem is more like

2:28

spider veins, but they're not spider veins.

2:30

Literally, no dermatologist or vein

2:32

specialists that she's gone to knows

2:34

what the problem is because it's

2:37

all over her legs. It started in her early

2:39

twenties in her feet. I

2:41

have the same thing starting

2:44

in my feet when I was in my early to mid

2:46

twenties. It hasn't spread yet

2:48

the way my mom's has, but it's very

2:50

interesting. And she too went and did

2:52

the square therapy, which is incredibly

2:55

painful. And my mom who um,

2:58

I'll just say that she has a high tolerance

3:02

for certain medications. She

3:05

takes like three viged

3:07

in to go get the square therapy

3:09

done, and it's still killed her. Yeah,

3:12

But then the veins ended up just coming back.

3:14

I don't know if that's because what she has

3:17

isn't true spider or very

3:20

coos veins, or if it's just like a totally

3:22

different condition, or maybe she's you

3:24

know, she's not wearing her compression stockings

3:26

long enough or what do you think our mom's

3:29

would be so annoyed right now if I knew that we

3:31

were talking about them, sure my mom

3:33

would be horrified. Well, I've also

3:35

been thinking about very coos veins and spider

3:37

veins more recently

3:40

because I've just been noticing more

3:43

billboards around town for

3:45

like vein specialists. They all say

3:47

you're so vain but like nice

3:50

fun um. So I've I've always

3:53

been curious about what they are,

3:55

because I've known that they're this this thing

3:57

that causes discomfort and

4:00

leg insecurity, but I've never really

4:02

known what exactly vericoas veins are.

4:05

So now we do

4:07

listeners, we have, we have facts a plenty

4:09

for you, and let's start with some

4:12

history, as we often do, because

4:15

here's the thing. If

4:17

you think that sclerotherapy is painful,

4:20

well it's a

4:22

whole lot better than

4:24

it used to be the old school treatments

4:27

for very coast veins, because not

4:29

surprisingly, vericas veins have been around

4:31

in our human bodies since forever.

4:35

Yeah, they're cave people with

4:38

cave veins. Yeah, we

4:40

have records of Hippocrates

4:43

observing ver coast veins,

4:45

and he thought that they were more common

4:48

among Scythians, which were a group

4:50

of Eurasian nomads because

4:53

they rode horses all the time. Yeah,

4:55

well, my mother should probably stop riding

4:58

horses to run her errand everywhere

5:00

she's got a grocery

5:02

store parking, there's never a space for

5:04

the horse. There's no trough.

5:07

It's just everywhere, so

5:10

inconvenient. And I don't

5:12

know that Hippocrates was so far off,

5:14

because by the sixteenth century we'd figured

5:16

out that there was a link between vericoas

5:18

veins and standing too long, particularly

5:22

standing before kings. And then I'm immediately

5:24

like, how long were people standing before kings?

5:26

What were they waiting for? I guess you had

5:28

to like go, like I'm just picturing Game

5:30

of Thrones and denies Targarian and you had

5:32

to like go request something and

5:35

wait in line for like ever. I

5:37

thought of Game of Thrones too, and realized

5:40

how you would be standing there

5:42

forever. And of course you didn't have iPhones

5:45

back then. Like what did you do? I don't know.

5:47

I guess you just twitter, just thoughts, thoughts.

5:49

Maybe people were more introspective back

5:51

when they were developing vericas veins while

5:53

they were waiting for the for the king.

5:56

They also um noted links

5:58

between vericoas veins and pregnancy, which

6:01

are a thing that exists there there

6:03

is an actual link between the

6:05

two. But this whole like standing

6:08

in Verica's vain thing really worries me

6:10

because as I'm reading all of this research for

6:12

this episode. Kristin I was like, we have

6:14

standing desks, oh lord,

6:17

But to be fair, like

6:19

we tele a work also, we

6:21

sit down for lunch breaks, we sit down for meetings.

6:24

So there it's like a lot of sitting and standing

6:26

like a Greek wedding. It's not necessarily

6:28

all just standing all day long. I think I

6:31

make up for it in my like Netflix

6:33

binge sessions. Yeah.

6:35

Well, the thing is like we're failing

6:37

ourselves either way because you shouldn't stand all

6:39

day, but you also shouldn't sit all day, Like, there needs

6:41

to be movements. So I don't

6:43

know, I don't know. Maybe like get a walking

6:46

desk treadmill type of thing

6:48

and and watch your Netflix that way,

6:50

or maybe get

6:53

a kiddie pool. Maybe we should just be in water

6:55

more. We should be swimming and swimming

6:57

desks. There we go for the waterproof

7:00

laptops. Um, but back

7:02

to history, back back to the

7:04

chime before laptops. In sixteen

7:07

o three, a super smart gentleman

7:10

named Hieronymous Fabricius

7:12

talk about it, pretty snazzy name.

7:15

He suspected a vain valve

7:18

issue was to blame, and that was a

7:20

pretty savvy observation. As we'll

7:22

explain in just a minute, But

7:25

if you had vericose veins during the Middle

7:27

Ages, the kind of treatments

7:29

that you might undergo would include

7:32

blood letting, cauterization,

7:35

and very similar to compression

7:38

tights and stockings that you might wear today.

7:40

They would wear lace up leather

7:43

stockings, so like or

7:46

like you're going to a leather bar. Yeah.

7:48

Yeah, So that's that's

7:50

something that we could still technically do today if

7:52

we wanted. They were very on trend, and

7:55

not surprisingly in more

7:58

recent times, as treat

8:00

technology has improved beyond laced

8:02

up leather stockings and blood letting

8:05

with things like laser treatments and

8:07

scleropathy, numbers

8:09

of people seeking treatments for spider

8:11

veins and vericoast veins have only

8:14

escalated, according to stats from

8:16

the American Society for Aesthetic

8:18

Plastic Surgery. And

8:21

they're super common. That's the thing about vericoast

8:23

veins. Of women

8:26

and fort of men

8:28

have some type of vein issue.

8:31

Yeah, and that's coming from the Department

8:33

of Health and Human Services Office on

8:35

Women's Health. And up

8:37

to seventy of men and

8:39

women develop spider veins, which

8:42

these tend to emerge in your forties or

8:44

fifties, although hello,

8:47

let's talk about me, about of

8:50

us will develop spider veins in our twenties

8:52

and thirties. And so like, as I'm reading all this stuff,

8:54

I did look at my legs

8:56

because they tend to form on your calves, like the

8:58

back of your legs or whatever. And I noticed

9:01

like a like a blue

9:03

a little blue, teeny tiny

9:05

thread like squiggle on

9:08

the back of my leg. Because spider veins don't

9:10

necessarily have to be red, they can also be

9:12

blue. Saying that very coast veins

9:15

and uh yeah, it's very

9:17

tiny. It's like it's like a couple of millimeters

9:19

long. Um. And I immediately was like I should

9:21

run around the block or

9:23

get into that kiddie pool with

9:26

my lace up leather pants.

9:28

There you go, there you go. So,

9:31

what's up with the very coast veins? How

9:34

are they caused so

9:36

quick? Anatomy lesson just

9:38

for a refresher. Our veins

9:42

job is to carry blood back

9:44

to the heart and lungs for recirculation.

9:47

So in the process, our foot

9:49

and leg muscles have to work really hard

9:51

because they're working coins gravity to help

9:53

pump that blood back up

9:56

and we have these tiny valves

9:58

in the veins open up that allow

10:01

the blood to flow towards the heart and then close behind

10:03

it to prevent the blood from me like, oh,

10:05

I'm gonna just cruise on back down there

10:07

and flow backward and pool. But

10:10

sometimes those valves and

10:12

our vein walls can

10:15

weaken, and this leads to blood leaking

10:17

back and collecting and

10:19

vericose veins forming there's

10:21

totally nothing gross about that. I totally

10:24

had no problem reading about pooling blood

10:26

Kristen in these sources. And

10:29

so speaking of hormones, as you might

10:31

imagine, pregnancy has an effect

10:34

on this stuff as well. So during

10:36

pregnancy, you've got more

10:39

blood going through you, you've

10:41

got greater blood pressure. This is exerting

10:43

more pressure on your blood vessels,

10:45

as you might imagine. But then you've got the

10:47

one to punch of the

10:49

progesterone relaxing

10:52

your blood vessels. So suddenly

10:55

boom, you've got pregnancy induced

10:57

vericas veins. And the good news

10:59

is is that pregnancy related vericas

11:01

and spider veins do tend to fade

11:04

over time post baby,

11:06

but they can also get worse

11:09

with each successive pregnancy,

11:12

which I do wonder whether that is partially

11:14

why my mom had such a hard time with vercas

11:17

veins because I was her fifth

11:19

child. My mom

11:21

worked so hard. Yeah, I wonder because

11:23

my mom was one of five. So I wonder if

11:25

her mom had him. I have no idea, but

11:28

my mom she only had me, but

11:30

she does stand all the time for her job as a flight

11:32

attendant. Well, and if her mom had him, And there's

11:35

definitely an hereditary link to Yeah,

11:37

it's an escapable let's

11:40

all just get to priff. But

11:42

in addition to these naturally occurring hormones

11:45

and pregnancy, women might also

11:47

be more predisposed to developing very

11:50

coast and spider veins because of things

11:52

like wearing high heels for extended periods

11:54

of time. That's linked to both

11:57

vericoas and spider veins. And we're

11:59

really talking about the higher heels

12:01

and we just weren't like a kitten heel. It's not so

12:03

bad, but and it's adorable, but

12:07

those high heels aren't terrific

12:10

for our circulation. Surprise.

12:13

Yeah, high heels in general not

12:15

not so great for your physical being.

12:19

Um. Also, birth control hormones. Hello,

12:22

the hormone fund never stops. As a human

12:24

person, because you know,

12:26

we mentioned estrogen and progestine weakening

12:28

those vein walls, so people who

12:30

take birth control more likely to have

12:33

verkas veins. But for some

12:35

quick myth busting relevant to a

12:38

number of stuff I've never told you listeners

12:40

and myself who have tattoos

12:43

and want to get more tattoos,

12:46

even if you have vericas veins, you

12:48

can still get them. That was an old myth

12:51

that like if you have ercas veins and you

12:53

shouldn't get tattoos, and assuming

12:55

because of issues with needles

12:58

and blood and all of that, was there an

13:00

assumption to that that tattoos could

13:02

contribute to vericas veins because that's also

13:04

false. Yeah, just in

13:06

case you were worried, it was probably just your

13:08

mom telling me, trying to scare you out

13:10

of getting a tattoo. Stuff your mom

13:13

might have told you stuff your mom's

13:15

scaremongered, Yeah, into

13:17

you. But vericoast

13:19

veins don't just develop on your

13:22

legs and feet, even though we've talked a lot about

13:24

our foot muscles and calf muscles

13:26

and all of the blood pressure and

13:29

vein valve weakening that happens in that

13:31

area. But friends,

13:36

this was the most shocking aspect

13:38

of this research. I'd

13:40

never heard of this before. This

13:42

is coming from the Mayo Clinic. You

13:45

can develop vercoast veins

13:48

in your volva. Yeah,

13:50

they're called vulver variscosities.

13:54

Yeah, And like ver coast fans

13:56

on your legs, they tend to develop during

13:58

pregnancy. Again because cause of

14:00

that additional blood volume that you

14:02

produce during pregnancy to nourish

14:05

the developing fetus and the

14:08

pressure that

14:10

that developing baby

14:12

put on your pelvis

14:15

and your volva, and the

14:18

veins might end up bulging. But even

14:20

if you don't, you'll probably feel it. Even

14:22

if you can't see them,

14:24

you might know that you have them if your doctor hasn't

14:26

caught them before you do well, because it's not

14:29

just on the volva either, Kristen, I

14:31

didn't realize that hemrhoids, which

14:33

a lot of pregnant women experience, that's

14:36

a varicos vein issue as well,

14:38

because there's so much pressure on

14:40

the lower half of your body

14:43

and those same hormones and that same blood

14:45

pressure is working. So if you develop

14:49

vulver vari scosities, you also

14:51

might get hemorrhoids.

14:54

And if you have vulvari scosities,

14:57

you will probably feel a fullness

14:59

and rusher and painful swelling

15:01

in the vulver area. No surprise,

15:04

sex is very painful. Standing

15:06

and exercising only aggravates

15:09

the problem as well. So what's the person

15:11

with vulver vericosity is to do. Get

15:15

yourself to an antique

15:18

store and buy yourself

15:20

an old school minstrel belt. It's that simple,

15:22

people, so simple. Yeah.

15:24

Before uh Maxi

15:26

pads came conveniently with adhesive

15:29

on the bottom, we would use

15:31

menstrul belts to hold up our our

15:34

period diapers, and doctors used

15:36

to recommend wearing pads

15:39

with supportive menstrul belts to

15:43

offer some compression in

15:45

that area in the same way that you know

15:47

compression stockings can relieve

15:49

some of the symptoms of hir

15:52

coast veins in your legs. Sure, yeah, and

15:54

now you know the same

15:56

concept, just minus the

15:59

belt. Can just go get like a whole

16:01

bunch of pads and

16:03

stick them in your pregnancy skinny jeans and

16:06

I'm sure that will be fine and comfortable. Yeah.

16:08

The article in over at Mayo Clinic

16:11

said that it would take six Maxi

16:13

pads today to give you any kind

16:15

of supportive relief. But

16:19

there are specially designed support garments.

16:22

UM, and also things that you can do like not

16:24

standing too much prop up your legs,

16:26

which you know what I say, if you're a pregnant person,

16:29

you should be propping up your legs all the time anyway, because

16:31

you deserve it. UM. Swimming helps

16:33

because it relieves that pressure. And

16:36

also I sing your volva

16:39

might help as well. That's

16:41

just like I felt myself get colder. Yeah,

16:43

and I also realized, I don't think I've ever said the phrase

16:45

I see your volva could be a new cocktail

16:48

idea where our

16:50

new catchphrase stuff

16:52

I've never told. It's a way for us to tell each other to

16:54

calm down, listen, just go ice

16:56

your volvo. Why don't you So when we're

16:58

talking about vericast veins

17:00

that typically develop in your feet

17:03

and legs, what are the symptoms

17:06

you mentioned, Caroline? The coloring,

17:09

Yeah, so they can be dark, purple

17:12

or blue, and that is because

17:14

this is unoxygenated blood.

17:17

Uh, they're bulging. They have sort of a gnarled

17:19

appearance, almost like a tree root. I

17:21

hope I'm not making this worse for people. Um,

17:24

but physically you might feel achiness,

17:27

burning sensations, muscle cramping

17:30

and itchiness around veins. You also

17:32

might experience skin ulcers around

17:34

the ankle. However, people,

17:36

this is a possible sign of vascular disease,

17:39

so make sure you get thee to a doctor

17:41

a SAP if this is what you're experiencing

17:44

now. When it comes to spider veins, these

17:46

are a mild variation of vericast

17:48

veins, but they aren't actually

17:52

veins. Their blood that's leaked

17:54

out of broken capillaries near the

17:56

skin surface and discolors

17:59

that tissue, and they typically show

18:01

up on the legs, but they can also develop on

18:03

your face, which I did not know. Yeah,

18:05

And they tend to be red or blue,

18:08

and they're typically, according to

18:10

your health provider, just considered

18:13

a cosmetic issue, although

18:15

they could indicate circulatory

18:17

problems, which is why I'm constantly

18:20

nagging my mother if we want to give out to the

18:22

complaining episode and nagging, nagging

18:24

my mother to go back to the doctor to try to figure

18:26

out her vein issues. But so,

18:30

then, what causes spider veins

18:32

to happen? Well, when it comes to spider veins

18:34

and vericoas veins, the

18:37

root of the issue could be all sorts

18:40

of things. Circulation problems,

18:42

not surprisingly hormone changes.

18:45

We've already talked about estrogen and progestine,

18:47

so I think puberty, pregnancy,

18:49

menopause, sun damage,

18:52

obesity can lead to them as well, because extra

18:54

weight will put additional pressure on

18:56

your veins. A sedentary lifestyle,

18:59

which I and is linked to the poor

19:01

circulation issue, and age.

19:04

The older that we get, the weaker our

19:06

vein valves become, which makes me sad

19:08

for my for my aging vein valves.

19:11

You know, I'm sure they appreciate your sympathy,

19:17

Thank you. Quiet. And then there's

19:20

kind of the inescapable stuff well, like

19:22

age, but also genetics

19:25

you might just inherit genes

19:27

that might predispose you to weaker vein

19:29

walls and weaker valves.

19:32

And of course things like stress,

19:34

smoking and drinking don't

19:36

help either. These things that cause inflammation

19:39

and the body, they can contribute to weakening

19:42

walls as well. Yeah, apparently stress

19:44

is a huge environmental

19:46

factor for this and

19:49

so many things. The more I read about the impact

19:51

of stress, Caroline, the more stressed out

19:53

to become about my level of stress, because I

19:55

feel like I am just setting myself up for all

19:57

sorts of health problems. Yeah, we basically

20:00

we all just need to calm down.

20:02

We need to ice our volvas so to

20:04

speak. I mean I'm including everyone, this

20:07

is it's just a turn of phrase. Yes, so

20:09

ice your volva so to speak, if

20:11

you will, if you will, and we

20:13

can all relax, like a deep breath

20:16

and relax. Because speaking of which, what

20:19

kind of self care can

20:21

we do to assist

20:23

with vericose veins and spider vein

20:25

issues? So put on those

20:27

compression stockings, ladies and gentlemen

20:30

um and they're different. I mean, they're different strengths

20:33

basically. I mean it's everything from stockings

20:36

you get at the drug store, which are sort of like

20:38

a one pressure fits all kind

20:40

of thing. They're not incredibly compressed

20:43

all the way up to uh

20:45

literally prescription strength compression

20:48

stockings that you can get from your dermatologists.

20:51

I wonder if those are at

20:53

all related to the compression

20:56

socks and gear that

20:58

you're seeing more and more runners

21:01

and athletes wearing. I would think,

21:03

so, she says, based on almost nothing.

21:05

Yeah, I'm just curious, listeners, if you if

21:07

you have any hunches on that, please

21:10

let me know, because I'm wondering if you could get a two for be

21:12

like, well, I'm going to just get my compression socks

21:14

from a jogging and also will

21:17

it improve your circulation? You should just get like

21:19

a full body, like long underwear compression

21:21

suit to wear under your clothes. Just the spanks

21:24

unitar or it could be like or you could

21:26

you know, like the tuxedo t shirts. You could have

21:28

like a suit painted onto it so you could wear your

21:31

super tight compression suit to work. That

21:33

sounds very flattering. But

21:37

here's the thing, people, save your

21:40

money and don't buy

21:42

all of those topical creams

21:45

and serums and concealers

21:48

promising cures, even

21:51

even fancy vitamin K creams, because

21:53

topical treatments can't penetrate

21:56

deeply enough to do

21:59

anything. They're not going to fix

22:01

the structure of your

22:03

vein walls are certainly not your vein

22:05

valves, So I mean they might moisturize.

22:09

Moisturize anyway, Yeah, absolutely, And

22:12

if you want to use a makeup concealer,

22:14

if you are embarrassed

22:16

about the discoloration, that can happen by

22:19

all means my mom my mom goes

22:21

crazy with the self tanner as a

22:23

way to to camouflage. I

22:25

will not offer further commentary um.

22:28

According to Women's Health magazine, though,

22:31

horse chestnut oil might

22:33

help reduce the swelling and redness,

22:35

but again, it will not cure the

22:38

veins. It's just kind of offering a temporary,

22:40

temporary assistance. And that was the first time

22:42

I had ever heard of horse chestnut oil.

22:44

Yeah, I've never heard of it. Yeah,

22:48

well, not to be confused with

22:50

a horse named chestnut oil. But

22:55

as we mentioned at the top of the podcast, they're

22:57

also medical procedures. There

22:59

are veins actualist and

23:01

they're also treatments like sclerotherapy,

23:04

which is considered the gold

23:07

standard. Yeah,

23:09

so here's what happens. The doctor injects

23:11

this chemical cocktail of salt,

23:14

fatty acids, and glycerin

23:17

into the vericos or spider

23:19

vein. This makes the blood

23:22

flow stop and then the veins

23:24

transform into scar tissue, and that scar

23:27

tissue eventually fades. I have no idea

23:29

why it would be so painful, But

23:32

okay, so this procedure has a success,

23:35

right, But as my mother could

23:37

tell you, it might take. It probably

23:39

will take multiple treatments for

23:41

severe vein issues, and

23:44

more recently laser treatments have become more popular

23:46

as well. But like

23:49

sclarer therapy for those severe vericose

23:51

veins. It will probably take multiple

23:53

laser treatments to see noticeable

23:55

difference as well. And then you've

23:58

got this thing called veins

24:00

stripping. Yeah, this

24:02

is when you actually remove

24:05

part of a long, superficial vein

24:07

that's causing the issue. It's an outpatient

24:10

surgery. Um. There's also endoscopic

24:13

surgery for severe cases, and

24:15

something called ambulatory flubec

24:18

to me, which is removing small vericoast

24:20

veins through skin punctures.

24:23

And none of this sounds

24:26

very pleasant at all. No, But

24:28

what does take me back to the

24:30

movie Sense and Sensibility

24:34

Colonel Brandon Rest in peace. Alan Rickman

24:36

just passed is leeches?

24:39

Remember leeches treatment Kate

24:41

or Kate Winslet's character anyhow, So

24:44

I know you're like leeches. What

24:46

that's like some crazy outdated therapy

24:48

that only Courtney Cox uses. No,

24:52

doctors in India have successfully used

24:54

leeches to reduce major swelling in

24:57

eighteen vericoas vein patients. Now here's

24:59

the deal. So I mentioned earlier that vericos

25:01

veins are like blue and gnarly because it's

25:04

unoxygenated blood. It hasn't been able to

25:06

pump back through the lungs to get reoxygenated.

25:09

Leeches love that stuff. And there's

25:12

even a farm I think it's called like bio

25:14

farm or something in

25:17

England that provides thousands

25:20

of leeches to healthcare providers every

25:22

year. Yeah. I mean this was reported

25:24

on in the New Scientists and BBC and

25:27

other outlets, and I mean

25:30

eighteen patients is a pretty

25:32

small studied population,

25:35

but apparently it you

25:37

know, it could work. But I also learned

25:40

reading this that leech

25:42

saliva has natural anesthetics

25:44

in it, so it hurts less

25:47

when these little buggers bite you and start

25:49

sucking out all that deoxygenated blood.

25:51

You seem pretty interested in the leech treatment,

25:54

super interested in this because I

25:57

it's so fascinating. We read so much about

25:59

these cookie treatments than medical things from

26:01

history all the time, and I

26:03

love that this one is coming back,

26:05

but backed by you

26:07

know, evidence and happy things like

26:10

science and stuff, and those lace

26:12

up leather stockings are just backed by good

26:14

fashion sense. My apartment's about

26:17

to get so weird. So

26:19

here's the thing. If you want to prevent

26:22

vericos veins and spider veins from happening,

26:24

well you can't because

26:28

genetics and also hormones

26:31

and things that we can't entirely

26:33

stop from happening, also aging,

26:36

But there are lifestyle

26:38

things that you can do to at least

26:40

delay them and minimize

26:42

their severity. And really

26:44

this has to do with all of this stuff our moms

26:46

probably did tell us about

26:49

maintaining healthy, active lifestyles.

26:51

Wearing sunscreen. My mother is so

26:53

adamant about me wearing sunscreen,

26:56

and at thirty one, I wish I listened

26:58

to her more. I do too.

27:00

I got some super bad sunburns

27:02

when I was growing up. Over and over again,

27:05

me too. But here's

27:07

the thing. You can cross your legs.

27:10

That is a myth. The external

27:12

pressure caused by crossing your legs

27:15

might cause your veins to temporarily

27:17

bulge, but it doesn't cause vericast

27:20

veins. So next time I see my mom

27:22

when it crossed my legs in front of her and explained

27:25

science, and you're gonna be like, deal with this with

27:27

this and be like, oh god, But

27:30

it's again, it's the defective valves

27:32

or weakened veins that lead

27:34

to the vericoast issues.

27:37

And finally, in case you need another

27:39

reason, don't smoke.

27:42

Yeah, man, smoking is not good for your

27:44

circulation, and poor circulation predisposes

27:46

you too. Vericoast things I'm

27:49

smoking is just the worst. Anyway, cut it

27:51

out. And on an unrelated note, I also

27:54

learned thanks to his stuff when I were told

27:56

you video I recently made, that

27:59

smoking is also linked

28:01

to breast potosis a k A. Boob

28:03

saggage. Whoa, I've

28:06

literally never heard that word before potosis.

28:10

Yeah. Well, then it sounds

28:13

like you need to get over to YouTube dot com

28:15

slash stuff mom never told you I

28:17

do? Wow? All right, learning

28:20

all these all sorts of things. Well, listeners,

28:23

we want to learn some things from you. Is

28:26

anyone out there dealing

28:28

with vericas veins and spider veins? I

28:30

mean, statistically the answer has to

28:32

be yes. So we want to hear

28:34

from you. What kind

28:36

of issues have you had? What

28:39

kind of treatments have you tried?

28:41

Out? Mom Stuff at how stuff works

28:43

dot com is our email address.

28:45

You can also tweet us at mom stuff podcast

28:48

or messages on Facebook, and we've

28:50

got a couple of messages to share with you right

28:53

now. Well,

28:55

I have a letter here from a listener who would like to remain anonymous

28:57

in response to the pair of episodes we did with

29:00

a practical wedding founder, Meg keene

29:03

Uh. This listener says, when my groom and

29:05

I began planning, family drama immediately

29:08

started to crop up. I feel really

29:10

gross about my father giving me away.

29:12

I find it patriarchal and demeaning.

29:14

My fiance feels the same way, which is why

29:16

he didn't ask my dad for permission, because quote,

29:18

it's not a transaction. We are

29:20

both fierce feminists, so we have a lot of opinions

29:23

about the patriarchal traditions of weddings

29:25

in general. But once other people

29:27

and their feelings started getting involved,

29:29

we started kicking around the idea of eloping

29:31

at city Hall and then having

29:34

a wedding later for everyone else. Our

29:36

weddings started becoming about other people

29:38

rather than about us in our love. So

29:41

we talked about it and I laughed it off until

29:43

I knew that I was finally getting kicked off my

29:45

parents health insurance. I wanted to

29:47

make sure I could put my fiancee on my new

29:49

insurance through work, since he is still

29:52

uninsured, and that was the nail in the coffin.

29:55

While I was worried that if my parents found out,

29:57

they would be heartbroken for getting cut out of something

29:59

or the other wedding would just be a sham.

30:02

We realized that a second ceremony is still just

30:04

as important and that we really just very

30:06

desperately wanted to be married to each other.

30:09

So we went down to the courthouse just before Christmas

30:11

and got married about a cute little white dress

30:13

and a veil, and we brought two of my best friends

30:15

to be witnesses. I have to say it

30:17

was absolutely magical. We got

30:19

Mexican food and Margarita's after and spend

30:22

a night in a hotel, and it's been wonderful

30:24

being secretly married. This also

30:26

meant that we didn't have to deal with anything

30:28

we thought of as patriarchal, and it just

30:31

became about us celebrating our love in a very

30:33

tiny and private way. So now that

30:35

we've had our Shakespearean elopement, that's

30:37

what we tell ourselves. It's taken some of the

30:39

pressure off of planning the wedding, but in other ways

30:41

it's made it harder. There's been difficult decisions

30:43

already about venues, and we can't

30:46

use the excuse of at the end of the day will be

30:48

married because we already are, and

30:50

I still don't want to be given away by my father,

30:53

but he's very sentimental and it'll mean the world

30:55

to him, so of course I'll do it to reconcile

30:57

myself with the fact that this is an act of him

31:00

selling me. We will not have

31:02

the officiant do the whole who gives this

31:04

woman to be given away? Woman

31:07

in all caps, because anyone who says this is

31:09

obviously a blustering Puritan judge from six

31:11

seventy. I've also kicked around

31:13

the idea of maybe having my husband's

31:15

mom walk him down the aisle, but they have a bit

31:18

of a contentious relationship, so I won't

31:20

make them. But this has already started

31:22

to be a wild, stressful experience. I can't even

31:24

get quotes on flowers, how much the flowers

31:26

cost. But I'm very much looking

31:28

forward to the wedding despite everything. And ultimately

31:31

I think a wedding is a party to celebrate two

31:33

people who love each other and want to make

31:35

that love legally binding. Patriarchy

31:38

be damned. She then thanks us

31:40

for introducing her to a practical wedding,

31:42

and so thank you, anonymous

31:44

listener, for writing in and sharing your story.

31:47

And to answer anonymous is question

31:49

flowers cost approximately a lot.

31:52

Take it for me? So I have a letter

31:55

here from Jen, also about

31:57

our chat with Meg Kane from a Practical

32:00

Wedding, She writes, I particularly

32:02

enjoyed your recent part one episode on Practical

32:05

Weddings. Meg Kine is fantastic

32:07

and I used her website as a near constant

32:09

reference when my wife and I got married in

32:11

October. I

32:13

really enjoyed getting to know the person behind

32:15

the incredible website that helped me maintain

32:17

my standity during the wedding planning process.

32:20

Because the Sminty Practical Wedding episodes

32:23

are primarily focused on traditional heterosexual

32:25

weddings, I wanted to offer an additional

32:27

resource for LGBT folks who

32:29

are tying the not. When my wife and

32:31

I got engaged, my parents gave us The Essential

32:34

Guide to Gay and Lesbian Weddings, which

32:36

addressed novel issues that gay couple's

32:38

face when getting married, above and beyond

32:40

the traditional pressures and norms. For

32:43

example, one of the sections I loved

32:46

was on the rs VP attendance rate.

32:48

The guide cautioned that the typical r

32:51

s v P attendance rate may not apply

32:53

to a same sex wedding, and in fact

32:56

may be much higher because guests maybe

32:58

particularly eager to demonstrate their

33:00

acceptance and or tolerance. The

33:03

book is very much in the spirit of a practical

33:05

wedding with its acknowledgement of

33:08

many ways to do weddings, while also providing

33:10

some much needed advice for same sex

33:12

couples. I wanted to share and hope you'll

33:14

help spread the word. Well,

33:17

thanks so much for sharing this resource

33:19

with us, Jen and it's been so fun

33:22

hearing folks is responses

33:24

to a Practical Wedding And

33:27

if you'd like to send us an email, Mom

33:29

stuff at how stuff works dot com is where you

33:31

can send it and for links to all of

33:33

our social media as well as all of our

33:35

blogs, videos, and podcast

33:38

with our sources, including this one so you

33:40

can learn even more about vericos

33:42

and spider veins. Cut on over to stuff

33:45

Mom Never Told You dot com

33:51

more on this and thousands of other topics. Doesn't

33:53

have stuff works dot com.

34:00

Yes,