Every person is unique with their health risks for vein diseases based on their current age, medical history, and daily activity level. However, your normal workday can be the root of many of the following conditions:
- Leg pain
- Leg swelling
- Varicose veins
- Spider veins
- Blood clots
- Venous insufficiency (which may become a leading risk factor to lymphedema)
The following job titles or fields may increase your risk for vein and vascular disease, so take a look to see if your work could cause vein disease.
Healthcare
Even an entire industry full of health-conscious professionals isn’t exempt from vein disease. From ER nurses who attend to multiple patients’ needs throughout the night to doctors performing medical procedures for hours at a time, the healthcare career path is prone to long periods of standing and vertical movement that can cause circulation problems over time.
Retail
Retail workers in any grocery store, department store, or boutique shop may stand at a cash register or organize displays for long periods, especially if they’re trying not to look idle in front of potential customers. Even short mandatory breaks can be vital for wellness throughout the day.
Industrial
Just like retail, a busy factory floor under a production deadline and a supervisor’s direction can leave little time for rest or healthy movement during an 8-hour workday. Even if machines assemble the majority of a product, products also need to be checked for quality control and packaged swiftly by factory workers, so they may stay on their feet to handle problems at a moment’s notice.
Education
Teachers are always the unsung heroes of the workforce that have to deal with sitting and standing without rest. Long lectures and class time take up the day, and grading pages and pages of student work after school at a desk, sometimes into the evening, may leave a teacher little time to properly exercise, stretch, or even just put their feet up.
Food Service
Those in the foodservice industry can spend hours doing prep work or serving customers, whether they’re in the front or back of the house. Waiting tables in a sit-down dining establishment for 6–8 hours without rest can be hard on your circulatory system. Standing at a grill or taking drive-thru orders at a fast food place for similar amounts of time may produce the same effect, no matter the price difference between the restaurants.
Administration
Answering phones and handling mountains of paperwork at a desk while also sitting in meetings for the majority of the day can lead to unhealthy working habits and conditions if they persist over a long administration career.
Telecommunications
Call centers of various kinds, from retail to technical support and emergency response, have multiple employees working at computer stations taking calls non-stop. This usually only allows time for one or two breaks out of the chair to meet high customer call volumes.
Hospitality
Front desk management, guest services, housekeeping, and other hotel and hospitality roles can all involve a mix of long hours waiting on guests’ needs while bending into uncomfortable positions or lifting awkward weights throughout the day.
Travel & Transportation
Airline stewards, plane pilots, ship captains, train conductors, and even bus drivers that operate or serve on a vehicle that transports guests for over four hours in cramped spaces work in a high-risk venue for vein disease concerns.
Technology
Most technology comes to life behind a computer through hours of software development and designing prototype models that have to be sized and calculated just right before being produced in a factory. The engineers and software designers that come up with these plans spend long workdays at a desk to achieve this innovation, sacrificing vascular health in the process.
Digital Content Creation
Creating or editing videos and graphics, writing blogs or online copy, and even building HTML code come with typical workdays spent hunched over a computer screen. Hours can pass before they even realize, not taking a break to get up and move around.
If any of these job descriptions sound familiar, reach out to the Heart of Dixie Vein & Vascular Center for any questions you might have about relieving or treating your possible vein disease symptoms. Healthier legs can help achieve a healthier life, and the knowledge you can gain at an appointment may be the first step towards that. Contact us today.
