What are compression garments?
Compression garments are specially-designed tight, form-fitting clothing that hug the skin. They can be worn on the lower body as shorts, tights, underwear, stockings or socks, on the upper body as sleeves for the arms.
What are the benefits of compression garments?
Compression clothing can be a fashion statement – women’s nylons, tights and stockings, for example – but they’re also functional and offer some important medical benefits.
Athletes across many different sports, from skiing and speed-skating to volleyball and sprinting, wear compression garments both during their activity and afterwards while in the recovery phase. While exercising, compression clothing can stabilize joints and improve posture to reduce risk of injury, regulate body temperature (hot or cold, depending on the design of the suit), and make the athlete’s body more aerodynamic. Athletes also use compression wear to aid in post-workout recovery by improving circulation to sore muscles.
Pregnant women may also wear compression bands around their stomachs to help prevent back pain and improve posture.
How can compression garments help your veins?
Medically, compression garments are great for your veins! They’re designed to offer extra support to people who have to stand or sit for long periods of time, such as for work, or when travelling.
Compression stockings, for example, work by squeezing tightly against the legs and improving circulation. Wearing compression stockings can help relieve the symptoms of varicose veins – achy, heavy legs – by encouraging blood flow.
Compression stockings can also help prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a life-threatening condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in the deep venous system of the body – most commonly in the legs, as blood clots tend to form when blood circulation is poor and blood is pooling in the legs.
Tennis star Serena Williams famously wore a full-body compression suit during her matches in order to help prevent life-threatening blood clots – a condition that became exacerbated when she became pregnant with and later gave birth to her daughter.
When to seek further treatment
While compression garments may provide temporary relief from varicose veins and other vein conditions, you may decide that you would prefer to have the troublesome veins treated and removed altogether.
Canada Vein Clinics provide state of the art treatments that remove varicose veins and stop them from coming back. We have locations in major Canadian cities including Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Richmond Hill, Orleans, Moncton, Vaughan, Kawartha Lakes, Kanata, and Dartmouth. Contact us today to schedule a consultation to learn more about your treatment options.
