People come into CiC complaining of chronic leg pain with swollen and achy legs, wondering what causes these symptoms. A CiC vein specialist can perform a comprehensive Venous Health Screening, which includes a complete physical examination, as well as use Doppler ultrasound to look beneath the surface of the skin. In many cases, we find that the cause of their symptoms is a condition known as chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). CVI leads to abnormal or malfunctioning valves within the veins, that can lead to varicose veins.

“When we tell the patients this,” says Dr. Garby, “the phrase we hear over and over is, But…I’m too young to have varicose veins!”

At CiC, we hear this phrase from patients in their 40’s and 50’s, but also from much younger patients. And we understand their disbelief, because in some cases their varicose veins aren’t even visible on the surface of the skin, at least not yet. A thorough ultrasound analysis can clearly identify the presence of diseased veins beneath the skin surface, and that’s how we diagnose their condition.

Because this IS such a common response, we’ve decided to discuss the question of age and how it relates to varicose veins. We think that after reading this blog, you’ll be able to better understand who gets varicose veins. You’ll also learn why they get them and at what ages they get them. We hope this information will help you to seek and find the best varicose vein treatment near you.

No, you’re NOT too young to get varicose veins

The belief that varicose veins only happen to older people is widespread, but it is false. It’s true that most cases of varicose veins occur among older people. Statistically, over half of women over 65 have them, but fewer than 1 in 20 women under 24 have them. But…”1 in 20″ is still a large number, and we have seen cases of people developing varicose veins as early as their teens and early 20’s.

And no, they’re not just a “women’s problem” – men get varicose veins, too

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), varicose veins affect nearly 17% of men in the United States. Many of these men are developing varicose veins earlier in life, as well.

What people of all ages need to know about what causes varicose veins

So what causes varicose veins? In this section, we’ll talk about the things that increase a person’s risk of developing vein disease and varicose veins.

Your age IS an important factor to consider when assessing your vein disease risk, but it’s not the most important factor. That would probably be heredity. If both of your parents had varicose veins, you have a 90% chance of developing them yourself. If only one of your parents had them, you have a 60% chance of getting them if you’re female, and a 20% chance if you’re male.

Being overweight and/or not getting enough exercise also greatly increases your risk of developing varicose veins. Due to hormonal reasons, women have a higher varicose vein risk than men do. This risk increases after pregnancy and can worsen with every additional pregnancy. The risk is also increased if they use birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy.

These factors significantly increase your risk of developing varicose veins after the age of 60. However, they also increase that risk when you’re much younger. So no, even if you’re in your 30’s and 40’s, you’re not too young to have varicose veins.

Whatever your age, here’s how to find the best vein disease treatment in Tempe

So what do you DO about this? If you realize that because of heredity or lifestyle choices you’re at risk for developing varicose veins, what do you do about it?

The answer to this question is simple – give the vein experts at Comprehensive Integrated Care (CiC) a call at 888-377-7122 or go online to arrange a vein health screening with one of our vascular specialists like Dr. Karen Garby. Your first priority should be to find out exactly what your level of varicose vein risk actually IS.

If you know you have varicose veins, what steps should you take to find the best varicose vein treatment specialists near you? Again, we recommend that you give us a call at CiC, because our doctors are widely respected for providing the best vein disease treatment in the Valley. We specialize in minimally-invasive, non-surgical treatment procedures. These procedures not only remove the pain and discomfort of varicose veins, but remove the swollen veins themselves. These varicose vein removal treatments are so gentle that you can literally have your varicose veins removed on your lunch hour, and then walk out and return to work or home.

“So – however old you are – don’t feel bad about varicose veins,” says Dr. Garby.  And don’t feel that you have to “live with them.” You don’t. Modern varicose vein treatment options can eliminate varicose veins permanently, and at the same time eliminate the symptoms they often cause, such as leg pain and swelling. Give us a call or go online to schedule, and allow the best vein doctors in Phoenix to explain your treatment options to you. You’ll be glad you did!

The post I’m Too Young to Have Varicose Veins – How Do I Find the Best Varicose Vein Treatment Near Me? appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.

As varicose vein specialists in Tempe and Sun City, we have to tell you that the short answer to this question is “Yes.” But the longer, more complete answer is more complicated. It is a mix of both good news and bad news:

• Good News. If your legs and ankles are free from varicose veins before you become pregnant, chances are good that they’ll remain that way. 60-70% of pregnant women give birth without them occurring.
• Bad News. On the other hand, varicose veins do occur during pregnancy in 30-40% of women. That’s a pretty large percentage.
• Good News. Most of the visible varicose veins that appear during pregnancy go away naturally, within three months of giving birth.
• Bad News. If you develop varicose veins during your first pregnancy, the odds are that you will also develop them again during later pregnancies or see them persist between pregnancies.
• Good News. If you do develop varicose veins, the vascular experts at Comprehensive Integrated Care (CiC) can guide you on how to treat them effectively, both during pregnancy (with conservative methods like compression hose and healthy eating) as well as afterwards. Modern varicose vein treatment with CiC is gentle, safe, and doesn’t even require you to go to a hospital.

Why are varicose veins more prevalent during pregnancy?

Blame nature. The volume of blood in your veins increases when you are pregnant. This puts additional pressure on the vein walls, causing them to weaken. At the same time, your body is flooded with hormones that cause the veins to expand and the weight of the baby puts direct pressure on the largest vein in the body, called the vena cava. This vena cava distributes blood to all the other veins in your body, so there can be a “domino effect” of increased internal pressure on smaller veins in the legs and ankles. All of these factors increase your likelihood of developing varicose veins.

Should I seek treatment if I develop varicose veins when pregnant?

If you experience negative symptoms associated with the varicose veins, it’s a good idea to consult with a varicose vein expert at one of our CiC locations in Tempe and Sun City. Such symptoms can include leg pain, muscle cramps, swollen achy legs, skin itchiness near the affected veins, or restless leg syndrome (feeling of creepy crawlies in the legs).

If you have varicose veins and experience symptoms like this, CiC vein specialists can tell you whether or not you need treatment with a Vein Health Screening. Varicose veins are rarely considered a medical danger. In many cases you can minimize any discomfort by watching your weight, exercising regularly, elevating your legs, and wearing compression stockings. If you’re pregnant and don’t have varicose veins, your CiC doctors can recommend things that can reduce your risk of getting them.

If you develop varicose veins and they don’t go away after you give birth, more good news is that you don’t have to wait until you are finished having children to consider vein removal. In fact, having them removed may be helpful in preventing a recurrence of vein disease during future pregnancies.

So whether you are pregnant or just considering it, give our experts a call at 888-377-7122 or go online if you have any additional questions. Our talented team of vein specialists at our Tempe and Sun City locations are happy to answer them.

The post Doctors from the Best Vein Clinics in Tempe and Sun City Discuss Varicose Veins in Pregnancy appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.

We do understand the confusion. These two terms sound similar, as if they’re describing the same disease or medical condition. It’s easy to mistake one term for the other, and use them as if they mean exactly the same thing.

In this article we’ll explain what these two terms really mean, and what makes them different from one another. We do this because we’ve noticed that NOT knowing the difference can cause people problems when they start looking things up on the Internet, or searching for the right type of doctor to treat their circulatory problems.

The difference between peripheral artery disease and peripheral vascular disease – the short, sweet explanation

It’s pretty simple, actually:

• Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is the name of one specific disease, a condition that affects only arteries, and primarily the arteries of the legs.
• Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is a generic “umbrella term” that describes a large number of circulatory diseases. These diseases affect not only arteries but also veins and lymphatic vessels. They can also appear in locations other than the legs, including the arms, neck, and face.

What is peripheral artery disease (PAD) – the slightly longer explanation

PAD (the specific disease) is caused by the buildup of a fatty, sticky substance called plaque on the inner surfaces of the arteries leading to your legs. This condition is known as atherosclerosis, but you may have also heard it referred to as “hardening of the arteries.”

No matter what you call it, it’s dangerous. The narrowing of the arteries restricts the amount of blood flowing to the legs, feet, and toes. Your lower extremities can’t get the oxygen and nutrients they need to stay healthy. So they begin to fail, in many ways. Common symptoms of PAD include leg pain, sores and wounds that won’t heal, and loss of mobility. Extreme symptoms of PAD include tissue death (gangrene), which can lead to amputation.

What is peripheral vascular disease (PVD) – the much longer explanation

As noted above, PVD refers to a number of different conditions. Some of them also affect arteries. Blockage to the coronary arteries feeding the heart, for example, can cause angina or a heart attack. Blockage in arteries feeding the kidneys can cause high blood pressure and heart failure. If arteries leading to the brain become blocked, the result can be a stroke or transient ischemic attack.

It’s important to remember, however, that peripheral vascular disease is a “group term,” and also involves diseases that affect the veins. The most common of these vein diseases is venous insufficiency, which can lead to varicose veins, in which the affected veins become swollen and discolored. More serious vein diseases can be caused by thrombosis, which is the formation of blood clots. These clots impair proper blood flow, just as atherosclerosis does, but they are in many ways more dangerous because they may not stay where they formed. With deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the clots can break off from where they started and travel to the lungs. This can lead to a pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal.

There are many other types of circulatory disease contained under the PVD “umbrella.” Aneurysms are bulges that form in the walls of blood vessels, and that can become dangerous. Lymphedema is a condition that blocks the lymph vessels and keeps them from draining fluid from tissues and supplying them with immune cells.

Why it’s important to know the difference between PAD and PVD

The difference between these two terms starts to affect you personally when you go to the Internet to look up information about them, or seek doctors who can treat them. What you’ll find is that many websites aren’t careful about making a distinction between PAD (the disease) and PVD (a whole range of diseases).

This can lead to confusion. If you have been diagnosed with PAD (the specific disease) for example, and go to Google looking for the best doctors who treat it in your area, it’s not going to help to be referred to doctors who may treat PVD (the larger group of diseases), but who may have little expertise in treating peripheral artery disease per se.

At Comprehensive Interventional Care Centers, we are famous for providing the best peripheral arterial disease treatment in Arizona. Some of our doctors also treat vein diseases and other forms of peripheral vascular disease. But if you’re looking for someone who really knows PAD and specializes in treating it, that’s us. Give us a call at 888-377-7122 and make an appointment to speak with our talented team of PAD experts.

The post Peripheral Artery Disease Vs. Peripheral Vascular Disease: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.

All PAD treatment options have the goal of controlling negative symptoms. At the same time, they try to slow the progression of the disease so that it doesn’t get any worse.

Some of these treatment options – called “conservative” or “natural” treatments – try to control symptoms through changes in your diet, exercise, and lifestyle. In other words, they involve as little direct medical intervention as possible. These natural treatment options do work for many patients, allowing them to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of their disease. They often help to stop the buildup of arterial plaque that narrows their arteries and causes the disease in the first place.

However, for other patients, more aggressive treatments are needed. These patients tend to either have more serious symptoms when they are first diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease, or they develop them later. The treatment options for these patients aim at physically removing the blockages to the arteries. These treatment options include minimally-invasive endovascular procedures such as balloon angioplasty, stent placement, or atherectomy.

So what determines which options are best for you, to most successfully treat your PAD? In this article, the best peripheral arterial disease specialists in Phoenix explain what we look at when we make a treatment recommendation.

The first question, of course, is “What are your symptoms?”

When a patient approaches us or is referred to us, we take the time to learn their medical history and do a focused examination. Our aim is to determine the best non-invasive study to be able to diagnose the problem as efficiently as possible. Many people with PAD have no symptoms at all. Others experience mild symptoms such as leg pain (claudication) and impaired mobility. Still others can have very strong symptoms that require more extensive treatment. These symptoms include leg pain that doesn’t stop even when at rest, sores on the legs and feet that don’t heal, or areas of coldness or numbness in the lower extremities.

If your PAD symptoms fall into the last category, they may indicate that you have or are in danger of developing critical ischemia (CI). This is a life-threatening condition that needs to be treated immediately, and aggressively. Advanced cases of PAD such as this can cause gangrene. If we don’t catch them in time, the result can be amputation. These advanced cases can also cause sepsis. Sepsis is a form of infection in which the body starts attacking its own tissues and organs. In severe cases like this, we would NOT recommend conservative treatment. What is needed is immediate intervention, before the disease becomes life-threatening.

Most of the time, however, we try to start with natural treatment

We will give you diet and exercise recommendations that will help you change your lifestyle. These lifestyle changes can help to minimize the impact that PAD is having on your circulation and your overall health. We can also help you to stop smoking, if needed. Quitting smoking alone will improve your vascular health. If you have high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol levels, or high blood sugar, we can treat these risk factors with medication. The medications help to control these risk factors so that they aren’t making your PAD any worse.

The next step in this natural treatment – and the most important – is to perform regular follow-up tests to see if natural treatment is working. If it is, and your symptoms are improving, that’s a good sign. If they’re getting better, we may decide that more aggressive treatment is not needed at this time. You can safely continue with the natural treatment. If your symptoms DON’T get better, however, or if tests indicate that the blockages are getting worse, we may recommend endovascular treatment.

One factor that can make conservative treatment NOT a good choice for you

Conservative treatment of PAD can work wonders, and quickly bring the disease under control. There is one problem with these lifestyle changes, however. You actually have to follow the recommendations before they work.

One of the reasons that supervised exercise programs are more successful at treating PAD than “exercising at home, on your own,” is that people don’t usually exercise at home on their own. Or they don’t exercise regularly enough for it to have any effect. Exercising with others can be more motivating. And even though quitting smoking is one of the most effective things people can do to treat their PAD, a lot of people find it too hard quit on their own and need additional help.

So, when considering whether natural or conservative treatment is a “good fit” for you, try to be honest with yourself as to whether you would actually follow the dietary, exercise, and lifestyle recommendations this treatment involves. If you suspect that you wouldn’t, natural treatment might not be the best option for you.

We can help you decide, and help you follow through. That, after all, is our job. We provide the best peripheral arterial disease treatment in Arizona, and we’re proud of our ability to do so. So give us a call at 888-377-7122 and let us help you find the best PAD treatment option, the one that is most likely to be successful for you.

The post Is Peripheral Arterial Disease Natural Treatment an Option for Me? appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.

In this article, the specialists from Comprehensive Interventional Care Centers address these questions, and give you the straight answers you’re looking for.

To answer the first question, PAD is a very serious condition, one that requires treatment. That’s the bad news. The good news, however, is that with early diagnosis and assessment, peripheral arterial disease can be successfully treated. Its symptoms can be managed and even reversed, and you can enjoy a long, active life free from symptoms such as constant leg pain.

First step – get an assessment from peripheral arterial disease specialists

The first thing you should do is to schedule an examination and assessment of your condition with doctors who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of PAD. Your family doctor may have noted your symptoms and made some tests, and suggested on the basis of them that you have peripheral artery disease. But you need to know more than that before you decide on the best treatment.

Peripheral arterial disease specialists such as the doctors at CiC can perform more extensive tests to determine first whether you really have PAD, and second, how serious your condition is if you do. Our specialists use sophisticated diagnostic equipment such as Doppler ultrasound to determine whether there is a buildup of plaque in your arteries that is blocking them. If necessary, we can use more extensive tests such as angiography to pinpoint the exact location of these blockages, and determine how much of a danger they pose to you.

This information allows us to make accurate assessments of the extent of your disease, and decide whether it should be treated conservatively, or more aggressively. Possible treatment options can include:

Conservative or natural treatment

For mild cases of PAD, the first line of defense is natural treatment. This option focuses on helping you to modify your lifestyle to reduce the risk factors that cause atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque that causes PAD). This form of treatment may include recommendations for dietary changes, weight loss, smoking cessation, walking or exercise programs, and advice on proper foot care. We wrote about these natural treatment options in more depth in two recent articles:

• “How Changing Lifestyle Habits Is an Effective Peripheral Arterial Disease Natural Treatment”
• “Is Peripheral Arterial Disease Natural Treatment an Option for Me?”

Click the links if you’d like to read more about these options.

Medical Management

Sometimes our examination of your condition shows you have certain critical risk factors that cause PAD and contribute to making it worse. If this is true, we may supplement the conservative treatments discussed above by prescribing medications such as:

• Cholesterol-lowering drugs (statin medications) to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.
• High blood pressure medications. If you have high blood pressure, your doctor may prescribe medications to lower it.
• Medications to control blood sugar. This is even more important if you have diabetes in addition to PAD.
• Medications to prevent blood clots and improve blood flow.
• Symptom-relief medications such as cilostazol to increase blood flow to the limbs and alleviate leg pain so you can walk more easily.

Interventional Management

Sometimes, peripheral artery disease requires more than lifestyle changes and medications to control it. If your symptoms do not respond to conservative treatment, your doctors may recommend more aggressive treatment options.

At Comprehensive Interventional Care Centers, these advanced treatments are reserved for patients whose symptoms are severe, or who are at high risk of serious problems such as gangrene or the loss of organ function. To reduce these risks, our Interventional Radiology Endovascular Specialists use procedures that are nonsurgical and minimally invasive. They include techniques such as catheterization, balloon angioplasty, stent placement, and atherectomy to open blocked arteries and restore proper blood flow.

In some cases, patients who have or are in danger of developing life-threatening conditions such as critical ischemia may be referred for a procedure called bypass grafting. In this procedure, the specialist uses a blood vessel from another part of the body or a synthetic tube to bypass (go around) a seriously blocked artery. These procedures don’t cure PAD per se, but they are sometimes required.

The decision as to which treatment option is best made by you, working in conjunction with peripheral arterial disease specialists

At CiC, we will present to you the best possible treatment options for your PAD, based on our many years of experience. If conservative or natural treatment is appropriate for your case, we’ll recommend it, and supplement it if necessary with specific medications. If we find that your symptoms or the rate at which your disease is progressing are more serious, we’ll present more interventional options for your consideration. Our goal is always to find the treatment that is best suited to each patient.

So give us a call at 888-377-7122 and get the evaluation process started. The sooner you start treating PAD, the sooner you can become free of its symptoms.

The post Your Options in Peripheral Arterial Disease Treatment appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.

Peripheral Arterial Disease

What are the symptoms and causes of PAD?

Phoenix cardiologists describe the common symptoms of PAD: 

• Pain or cramping in the legs after walking or climbing stairs
• Numbness or weakness in the legs
• Coldness in the legs, feet, or toes
• Sores or color changes on the legs
• Hair loss or shiny skin developing on your legs and feet
• Weaker leg pulse
• Erectile dysfunction in men.

However, you can have PAD and display none of these symptoms.

The primary cause of PAD is atherosclerosis, or the buildup of fatty plaque on the interior walls of the arteries. Significant risk factors for PAD include smoking (which increases your risk 2-4 times), diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure (over 140/90), aging, and a family history of heart disease or stroke. PAD is a serious disease. Left untreated it can cause critical limb ischemia (open sores that don’t heal, sometimes developing into gangrene and requiring amputation), stroke, and heart attacks.

How do I know if I have Peripheral Arterial Disease? How is it diagnosed?

PAD can be detected by your peripheral arterial disease specialist as the result of a physical examination in which weak or absent pulses are found in your extremities, and also using the ankle-brachial index, a specialized blood pressure test in which blood pressure in your arm is compared to blood pressure in your ankle. The doctor may also use other non-invasive procedures such as Doppler ultrasound (to analyze actual blood flow to pinpoint blockages or narrowed arteries), specialized blood tests, and angiography.

How is PAD treated?

Peripheral Arterial Disease treatment has two goals – to manage symptoms, and to stop the progression of atherosclerosis to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. In some cases, this can be done by making lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation, weight loss, and regular exercise. In other cases, medications can be used to lower cholesterol levels, lower high blood pressure, control blood sugar, prevent blood clots, and relieve extreme symptoms.

If the PAD has progressed to a point at which even more extensive treatment is needed, the experienced doctors at Comprehensive Interventional Care Centers can also perform endovascular treatments. These treatments include lower extremity angioplasty and stenting, atherectomy, mesenteric angioplasty and stenting, carotid angiography, carotid stenting, and endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair to treat severely damaged arteries.

So if you have a family history of atherosclerosis or heart disease, if you have noticed any of the symptoms discussed earlier, or if you have increased risk factors for developing PAD, give the best heart doctors in Phoenix a call at 888-377-7122 or visit us online at www.ciccenters.com to find a specialist near you. We can set up an appointment to determine the exact state of your PAD health.

The post Phoenix Medical Specialists Discuss the Diagnosis and Treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.

Five heart-healthy habits that can literally save your life

1. See your doctor regularly. Most of the indicators of elevated risk of heart disease can be detected in a simple checkup that takes less than an hour. A few minutes spent checking the status of your heart rhythms, your blood pressure, and your cholesterol levels can provide “early warning signals” of heart disease before it has had an opportunity to become serious.
2. Eat a more heart-healthy diet. Focus on eating a more balanced diet, low in saturated fats and trans fats, and high in fruits, vegetables, and sources of unsaturated fats like lean meats, poultry, and fish. Add more grains, soluble fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids to your diet, and avoid fast foods, processed foods, and sugary foods and drinks. At the same time, reduce the amount of sodium (salt) you consume, 75% of which we tend not to notice because it comes “hidden” in processed foods and meals we eat in restaurants.
3. Get more exercise. And “exercise” doesn’t have to mean going to the gym and “pumping iron” every day, or running marathons. Just walking more can greatly reduce your heart risk. Work up to a goal of exercising 30 minutes every day, even if that is just a brisk walk. Swimming, playing sports, and even climbing the stairs rather than taking the elevator can also help.
4. Maintain a healthy weight. Statistics tell us that most Americans need to lose weight. Every extra pound you carry around puts more pressure on your heart and your circulatory system, and increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Eating a healthier diet and exercising more can help, but if you are more than a little overweight, or obese, working with your Phoenix cardiologist to develop a sensible weight loss plan can literally add years to your life.
5. Pay attention to what your parents told you about “vices.” Remember when they told you that smoking and drinking too much alcohol were bad for you? They were right. Stopping smoking will lower your blood pressure within 20 minutes and cut your heart attack risk in half within a year. A glass of wine at dinner can actually be beneficial to your heart health, but drinking more than that – especially on a long-term basis – significantly increases your cholesterol levels and thus your risk of heart disease.

What other lifestyle habits can make my heart healthier?

We’ve listed the “Top Five” heart-healthy habits above, because they are the ones that will have the most positive impact on your heart health, and in the shortest period of time. But naturally there are other habits you can develop that will help to keep your heart healthy. For example, finding ways to reduce stress like yoga, meditation, or tai chi can benefit your heart by lowering the strain placed upon it by stress in your environment. Getting enough sleep is as important to your heart health as it is to maintaining your overall health

But the “Top Five” suggestions are still the most important, as is finding a trusted source of medical information about heart health and how to improve it. At Comprehensive Interventional Care Centers, we pride ourselves on our devotion to patient education. We work with our patients to find ways to “help them help themselves” to keep their hearts and their circulatory systems healthy. So call your Phoenix area cardiologist heart doctors today and “tick off” the first habit on our list today. We’ll help you with the rest of the list.

The post Phoenix Vascular Doctors List Five Heart-Healthy Habits You Can Adopt Today appeared first on Comprehensive Integrated Care.