Varicose veins are rarely absent from older legs.

Conventional surgical treatment is painful and intrusive, requiring an incision into the groin, plus multiple incisions in the legs.

However, a new laser procedure means only a tiny incision is needed. EndoVenous Laser Treatment (EVLT) is carried out under local anaesthetic and takes only two hours in hospital.

A woman who underwent the treatment, writes :

First, they measured me for the stocking they were going to put on my leg afterwards, which would minimise any bruising.

Once in theater, another ultrasound scan was done of my leg to find the best place to enter the vein. [The surgeon] marked the point with a surgical marker pen and I was given a local anaesthetic, so I couldn’t feel anything. Then I was placed on my side. [He] made a small incision, level with my knee, and threaded a guide wire and then the laser through my vein.

I couldn’t see what was happening as I had drapes over me. I was given a pair of goggles to protect my eyes from the laser, then the lights were switched off and the laser switched on. The procedure took just a few minutes. Then, when the vein was sealed, [the surgeon] switched the laser off. Lastly, he removed the wire containing the laser and put a sticky skin fastener over the incision.

I then got off the operating table and walked to the recovery bay. I’d arrived at 12.30pm and was ready to leave two hours later. Initially, my leg was numb, but feeling in it returned after an hour or so.

It’s easy to imagine a lot of demand for this new treatment.

Joan Galloway has been nominated as one of the “inspirational women of the year”. At 76, she has carried out her wedding vows to her husband Stan to the letter. She has spent the past 20 years caring for Stan, 85, who has severe Parkinson’s disease.

“There are times when I wake up in the morning and think: ‘How am I going to cope today?’ says Joan, who lives in Lancashire, England.

“But when I was younger my husband always took care of me. He supported me, financially and emotionally. He was always so kind and loving. Now it’s my turn to do what I can for him.”

Joan spurns professional carers and nurses, aware that Stan would not like strangers to dress or bathe him. “I want to keep on looking after him here in his own home as long as I can. But it is difficult as he weighs 10st and can barely stand up. And I’m getting arthritic myself. It’s a struggle to get him in and out of the bath or to take him to the commode. It’s very hard to see a man who was so energetic and lively come to this.

“Parkinson’s is a very cruel disease in which your body just seizes up. Stan was in RAF bomber aircrew during World War II and was hugely brave. Now, he can barely move and struggles to speak. He’s also almost blind and very hard of hearing, both of which are unrelated to the Parkinson’s, but make it even harder to keep him entertained and cheerful.”

Joan has been nominated for the award, sponsored by the Daily Mail newspaper, by Stan’s lifelong friend from his airforce days, Alan Holmes, who admires her selflessness and devotion to her husband.

Joan says, “I’m really embarrassed to be singled out. Surely I’m just doing what any woman would for the man they love?”

Stan’s problems became noticeable in hos mid-60s before retirement from the family quarrying business. “He began to rush about with a very frantic sort of forward-leaning walk, which is one of the first signs of Parkinson’s,” says Joan.

“We knew something was wrong so he went for tests. But the news that he had Parkinson’s was devastating. For the first five years after diagnosis, he wasn’t too unwell, just had shaky hands and would struggle to turn door knobs or pick things up. But for the past 15 years he really has been very disabled and in the past few months he has got even worse. I now have to liquidise his food and spoon-feed him. I have to make sure he takes all his pills, which give him the ability to turn in his chair and pick up a book, although he is so blind he can only look at the pictures. Our children — two girls and six boys — help out, so that on Wednesday morning I can have my break and go for a swim. One of my sons sits with Stan and always tells me to stay out longer and go round the shops or visit someone. But I know Stan frets constantly when I’m not there.

“He loves having visitors and talking about the old days in the RAF. If friends or relatives can have the patience to sit with him, he really lights up for about five or 10 minutes. Then he gets exhausted and goes back into his own world. As a carer, I’m given government vouchers for four weeks’ respite care every year, which is wonderful. But I only take two weeks. Stan goes into a nursing home and I travel to Cornwall with old friends for a holiday. I’m off again in September and that break helps me to recharge my batteries and keep going. I just pray I have the strength to carry on looking after him as long as possible.”

Inspirational indeed.

Dr Fredric Brandt — of Botox fame — says that just by eliminating sugar from your diet, you can look ten years younger in ten days.

And it isn’t just by losing weight : “In a nutshell, sugar hastens the degradation of elastin and collagen, both key skin proteins. In other words, it actively ages you,” he claims.

In a new book, 10 Minutes/Ten Years: Your Definitive Guide to a Better and Youthful Appearance, Brandt says he saw a remarkable change in his own skin when he dropped sugar from his diet. He lost 20lb in weight, but also gained a new “glow, radiance and elasticity” in his face. Within a year, his body had changed as well.

“I’m really lean and have the body of a teenager, although I’m in my 40s. … Believe me, it’s cheaper than a facelift.”

He continues, “The sugar triggers a process in the body called glycation. This is where the sugar molecules bind to your protein fibres — those wonderfully springy and resilient collagen and elastin fibres — which are the building blocks of skin.”

However, just by overheating starchy foods or grilling them, the sugar content mutates producing Advanced Glycation End products, AGEs, which do immense harm to the skin.

This is quite a complex book, so if you’re really interested in its message, we suggest you read it in detail.

One of the many symptoms of aging is that wounds and injuries take longer to heal. There are a number of reasons for this, and most people just accept is as a fact.

Blood Platelets

However, a medical breakthrough in the healing process may offer hope to the elderly that surgery won’t put them out of action for any longer than necessary or leave them open to infections.

A gel made from patients’ own blood cells is said to dramatically speed up the healing process after surgery. It’s claimed that the “DIY gel” could lower the risk of life-threatening hospital infections by dramatically shortening the recovery period.

The gel was tested on a small group of patients with startling results. Those who were treated with the gel had almost completely healed just two weeks after surgery in 80 percent of the cases. Only 50 percent of identical wounds treated with antibiotics had healed.

It’s known that deep surgical wounds are one of the main routes into the body for drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA, which usually lives harmlessly on the skin until the immune system weakens through illness or gets access to an open wound after an operation.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati tested the gel on a group of volunteers who had each been given two puncture wounds, one on each thigh. One wound was given two applications of the gel, the other a standard antibiotic ointment. After two weeks the rate of healing was much faster in those wounds treated with the gel.