Exercise regularly to improve blood circulation in the legs and to control weight. Pressure from excess weight can weaken the veins' walls and valves.

Avoid sitting or standing for long periods if possible. While standing, shift your weight often from one leg to another or bounce up and down on your toes. Take short walks around the office throughout the day to improve circulation.

If you have varicose veins, wear compression stockings. Put the stockings on while you're still lying in bed in the morning and wear them all day.

In this popular outpatient procedure, a doctor injects spider and small varicose veins with a chemical solution that causes the veins to scar and close, forcing blood to reroute to healthier veins. An updated version, called tumescent enhanced sclerotherapy, involves injecting a solution around the vein that causes it to hold the chemical in, allowing for fewer treatments with more permanent results. Sclerotherapy doesn't require anesthesia. Usually two to six sessions are required. While the cost varies, it generally averages runs $200-$400 per session. Sclerotherapy does not prevent new spider and varicose veins from developing.

Used to remove varicose veins, the method involves making a few tiny incisions and placing a light under the skin to illuminate the vein so a gentle suctioning device can fragment it and remove it completely. The 40-minute outpatient procedure is minimally invasive and causes little bleeding, scarring or pain. It can remove varicose veins in a single appointment and patients can walk after it's done. Insurance often covers the cost for the procedure, which runs about $3,000 per leg.

Laser procedures, which use strong bursts of light, are more commonly used to destroy varicose veins and spider veins, especially on the upper body and the face. No incisions or needles are used, but the procedure can be painful.

This procedure involves removing a long vein through small incisions. This is an outpatient procedure for most people. This surgery can leave permanent scars and can damage nerve tissue around the treated vein.

iulia De Palma stretched out on her belly on an examining table at the office of Dr. Drew Georgeson one day this summer, ready for the general surgeon with St. Joseph Healthcare to make her bluish spider veins a thing of the past.

As Georgeson injected a solution via a tiny needle into De Palma's veins, they instantly vanished. A moment later, they were replaced by thin red lines that would soon disappear.

According to the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, 80 percent of American women are riddled with unsightly red and blue spider or varicose veins by the age of 80. For those who want to zap the zigzagging spider veins from their skin or permanently remove painful varicose veins, medical advances make doing so easier than ever.

Georgeson performs an updated version of sclerotherapy, the traditional treatment for spider veins, called tumescent enhanced sclerotherapy. In traditional sclerotherapy, a chemical solution is injected into the vein, causing scar tissue to form and the vein to close and disappear. The procedure can have mixed results because the body tries to wash out the chemical, Georgeson says. The newer procedure involves injecting a solution around the vein that causes it to hold the chemical in, allowing for fewer treatments with more permanent results than the traditional method.

De Palma, who calls herself a "big coward" when it comes to needles, says she barely felt anything during her recent session and loved her results.

People with spider veins on their face can have them removed with a laser treatment. People who live in cold climates tend to rub their nose a lot, causing blood vessels in the face to dilate, says Dr. Kathleen Gilmore, medical director of American Laser Centers.

"Many people who have large varicose veins assume that because they're unsightly, removing them is a cosmetic procedure," Georgeson says. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Varicose veins are purple or blue and look like twisted cords that bulge above the skin's surface. They're typically caused by a combination of hormonal issues, heredity, and pressure and swelling due to pregnancy, though you can take some steps to prevent them.

Georgeson performed a technique he helped develop called trans-illuminated phlebectomy to remove the mass. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved method involves making a few tiny incisions and placing a light under the skin to illuminate the vein so a gentle suctioning device can fragment it and remove it completely.

The 40-minute outpatient procedure was no more painful than the veins themselves, Penz says, and it removed the mass entirely, leaving behind only some bruising and incisions healing on her now-smooth leg.

"I would recommend it to anyone, especially if they're in a lot of pain," says Penz, 37, of the surgery. "I wish I'd had it done a long time ago."

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