Veins and Venous Disease What are veins and why are they
important? There are two main types of blood vessels in the body
and these are arteries and veins. Your arteries have thick walls
and move blood away from your heart, while your veins have
thinner walls and return the same blood to your heart, minus
much of the oxygen and nutrients. To do their job, arteries are
tough enough to cope with the pressure-generated by the heart to
push the blood along, but veins can only withstand low pressure
and, where possible, rely on gravity to return blood to the
heart. In the legs, your veins need to work against gravity and
so pressure can build up in those closest to the skin’s surface.
This can cause the valves within the veins, which are there to
help prevent the blood flowing backwards, to fail. This, in
turn, leads to venous reflux and varicose veins. What do only
some people get varicose veins? - Many women, and men, have a
hereditary weakness in their vein walls. This is why you’ll
often notice that members of