A person’s height and certain genes that predict height are associated with varicose veins and may provide clues about what causes this condition and ways to prevent and treat it, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
A person’s height and certain genes that predict height are associated with varicose veins and may provide clues about what causes this condition and ways to prevent and treat it, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
“We may be able to leverage what we know about the biology underlying human height and use it to uncover the root causes of varicose vein disease,” said lead author Nicholas J. Leeper, M.D., from the Divisions of Vascular Surgery and Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University in California. “Ultimately, this may help investigators discover a therapy that can prevent or reverse this common and sometimes debilitating disease.”
More than 30 million people in the United States are estimated to have varicose veins, which is a common condition that is increasingly being associated with serious health risks, including life-limiting ulceration and venous thromboembolism, which is when a blood clot forms within a vein. However, little is known about what causes varicose vein disease or how to treat it.
Read more at American Heart Association
Image: Height check - woman (Copyright American Heart Association)
