They’re just socks! So how do they work to help my veins, feet and legs? Good thing you asked us this question, or else we wouldn’t be able to write this nifty blog post on the topic.
Compression socks and stockings provide gentle external pressure to the legs in a specific way to help reduce the venous pressure. Venous pressure is the amount of stress that your veins have to deal with because gravity is pulling your blood and other fluids in your down towards the ground. When you stand or sit for long periods of time without movement in your legs, ankles and feet, they start to feel heavy and achy. That’s the venous pressure. When you move your calf muscles, your body naturally squeezes up against your veins to help return blood back to your heart and lungs. Compression socks and stockings also help this natural process. But just squeezing your legs is not enough to help boost your circulation. What’s special about these compression stockings is that the pressure they apply is “graduated”, meaning that the amount of pressure at the ankle is the greatest and it gets lighter as it move towards the top of the stocking.
Like all things, your veins eventually wear out and they have a harder time trying to get blood to flow back up your leg and to your vital organs. So compression stockings help restore the blood flow to normal by preventing the decrease in blood flow. In addition to boosting circulation, compression garments also helps get the swelling out of feet, ankles and legs.
You don’t have to have a problem with your veins or legs to wear compression socks and stockings. There are lots of different people, both young and old, healthy and active wearing compression stockings. A lot of new fangled technology now allows these cool socks to be made in any color and style. You can get a sport sock that has graduated compression in it for jogging or playing sports. Isn’t that awesome?