Leg pain, Varicose Veins and Compression Stockings

When your heart beats, it pushes blood down to your feet. Now, how does it get back up to your heart? Well, your calf muscle acts as a pump and pushes the blood back up. So when you're standing all day, or when you're sitting still and your calf muscle is not pumping, the blood gets stagnant, sits there and causes aching, swelling, discomfort. And compression stockings work by squeezing the calf and helping assist the blood to get back up to your heart. I'm on my feet all day and I wear compression stockings, and knee high compression stockings are about 85% as effective as thigh high compression stockings. You should wear compression stockings when you're in a situation where you're doing prolonged standing or prolonged sitting, or if you have symptoms of what we call venous insufficiency, where you have leg pain, discomfort, aching, restlessness in your legs, that will significantly reduce those symptoms.