Vitamin K for Thread Veins

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Vitamin K has been used for about 80 years by doctors to promote skin healing, particularly in the event of bruising. Nowadays vitamin K is used as an ingredient in topical creams applied to treat thread veins.

If vitamin K is used to treat bruising, how is it any good for thread veins?

Thread veins are not massively dissimilar to bruising in that both involve the pooling of blood where it shouldn’t be. Bruises form as trauma causes blood vessels to rupture, leaking their contents into the surrounding tissue. Similarly, thread veins form over time as blood vessels expand and blood pools within them, forming the characteristic ‘web’ of veins symptomatic of the condition.

With these basic physiological resemblances in mind, it’s easy to see how one treatment can be used for both conditions. Vitamin K is widely used as a topical cream used by cosmetic surgeons to minimise post-surgical bruising. It’s also prescribed by doctors as a treatment for Rosacea, a condition actually associated with spider veins, which involves facial reddening as a result of exposure to certain stimuli and foods. There are in fact three types of vitamin K, and it is K1 which is used to these ends.

Vitamin K and your Thread Veins

Vitamin K is available over the counter as a cream, doctors tend to use products with a minimum of 5% vitamin K (which may be written on the label as phylloquinone or phytomenadione). Applying the cream after a shower maximises its effectiveness as your pores will have expanded allowing for the vitamin to more effectively penetrate your skin. The results will of course vary, but vitamin K treatments provide a cheap and safe alternative to other forms of therapy.

Vitamin K also has a role in prevention.

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