DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am a 59-year-old male who works part time at a grocery store after retiring from the United States Postal Service. My primary-care doctor referred me to a vascular surgeon for my varicose veins. The surgeon said surgery was medically necessary and was not for cosmetic purposes. I have aches and pains in my leg and sometimes a burning sensation. The doctor said that on a scale of one to 10 -- 10 being the worst -- my veins are a seven.

I am to have outpatient surgery, with a total recovery time of about a month. Will you give me your advice and opinion about varicose veins and surgery for them? -- J.B.

ANSWER: Varicose veins are veins that are dilated due to incompetent vein valves. Such veins are usually leg veins. You don't have to convince me that removing them is necessary for you. They can give rise to dull aches and pain, especially in the calves, or they can cause a burning sensation in the legs. Elevating the legs as often as possible, wearing compression stockings and losing weight, if necessary, keeps them from getting worse.

Doctors have a number of ways to treat these veins. They can remove them by making a few incisions in the thigh, hooking the dilated vein and pulling it out. I believe you are having an ambulatory phlebectomy (fleh-BECK-toe-me). It's surgery done via a series of very small incisions -- so small they are hardly visible. The doctor then removes the vein piecemeal through the tiny cuts. You go home the same day. Recovery is faster than with other kinds of vein surgery.

Varicose veins can also be removed by injecting them with solutions that cause their insides to collapse and stick together. That's sclerotherapy (SCLARE-oh-THAIR-uh-pea). For larger varicose veins, a foaming material that causes the same reaction is used. This information came to me from a doctor in Alberta, Canada. The foam is injected into the vein under the guidance of ultrasound. Radio waves or a laser beam can obliterate varicose veins by using an instrument that looks like a regular catheter, the soft tube used for so many vascular procedures. Your doctor has picked an excellent way to get rid of your vein problem.

The booklet on varicose veins provides more information on the subject. To obtain a copy, write: Dr. Donohue -- No. 108, Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Enclose a check or money order (no cash) for $4.75 U.S./$6.75 Can. with the recipient's printed name and address. Please allow four weeks for delivery.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have been taking Centrum Silver vitamins for 15 years. Upon reading the label, I see that ingredients in each pill include FD&C Blue No. 2 aluminum lake, FD&C Red No. 40 aluminum lake and FD&C Yellow aluminum lake. Aluminum causes Alzheimer's disease. Let me know if I should take anything with aluminum in it. -- R.E.

ANSWER: ''FD&C'' stands for the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which empowers the Food and Drug Administration to monitor all additives put in foods, drugs or cosmetics. Seeing that on the label indicates compliance with the FDA. A ''lake'' is a pigment -- a substance like a dye, but able to impart color to products that cannot hold onto water. Aluminum is the mineral usually used in lakes.

The amount of aluminum in each pill is infinitesimally small. Furthermore, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency have all said that exposure to aluminum does not pose a threat for developing Alzheimer's disease.

Food colorings and aluminum are topics that bring heated discussions. I do not shun tablets that contain aluminum lakes and do not fear using products with aluminum in them. Your vitamins are safe.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: At what age should a mother monitor the fat intake of her children? I heard that children need a certain amount of fat for brain development. -- J.D.

ANSWER: A child's fat intake should not be lowered until the child is 2 years old. Fat is a source of energy, and it does ensure that brain cells develop normally. After 2, most children can eat a diet similar to what the rest of the family eats -- so long as the rest of the family is eating a healthy diet.

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