Question:
This may be a weird query, but does anyone know whether it is possible to get rid of visible thread veins? I have several on my back and shoulders (They're visible in this picture, if you're wondering what I'm talking about! http://www.thejunkyard.org/images/hesters_tattoo/flash.jpg), and I don't like them; they appear as little purple lines and because my skin is very pale, they really show a lot. My skin is otherwise good, and I have a lovely brand new tattoo, and would really like to be able to show it off without worrying about the thread veins, but I have no idea whether there is any treatment for them; does anyone know?

Answer: -I'm pretty sure that I have seen thread vein treatments available at some hairdressers/ beauty salons. Try looking in the back of magazines such as Cosmo too at the cosmetic surgery ads. -There's nothing you can swallow or rub on to fix them. But they can certainly be lasered or injected out of existence. Google on "spider veins" and "sclerotherapy". For something like this, do to a dermatologist who specializes in such things. Your family doc may be willing to take a whack at it, but there's a definite learning curve involved in dealing with these things and you want someone who does *lots* of it.

-If anybody but an MD offers to inject your veins, run away. Sclerotherapy involves injecting the tiny dialated veins with various solutions of medical detergent and/or concentrated saline solution. This burns the inside of the vein and causes it to scar shut. No blood goes through, no purple color to show through your skin. But you have to be very careful with the solution. If you miss the vein and inject into the surrounding tissue it'll burn a nice hole in your epidermis. -Arteries carry fresh oxygen and nutrient-rich blood out from the heart/lungs to the body in a nice, high-pressure flow. Veins carry the oxygen-depleted blood back toward the heart and lungs. By the time the blood reaches the veins there's not a ton of pressure behind the flow, so veins have these little valves that are intended to keep the blood from flowing backwards. In some people those valves tend to go bad, allowing stagnant blood to pool and stretch the vein walls. That's what causes varicose veins and their smaller cousins, spider veins. (And hemorrhoids are varicose veins of the rectum.) It's mostly about heredity. Anyway, when the valves go bad in a vein, it's not doing its job well anyhow so the body tends to reroute most of the returning blood around the problem spot. This is called collateral circulation. So if a damaged vein is either causing pain (varicose veins of the leg can ache something awful) or is a cosmetic nuisance it can be shut down without causing circulatory problems.