I will tell you a story about compression socks.
The 18th century, a businessman who have severe varicose veins and derived lower extremity ulcers. He has a habit to visit famous local hot springs to relax a few weeks annually.
This local hot springs had relatively small water opening, so he can only bath with stand posture. Something made him feel strange, ulcers of the feet became miraculously recoverd after bathing in the hot spring every year.
The businessman was a wise man, he wanted to know what cure his ulcer? The water quality of the hot springs or other reasons? And he did an experiment: bringing the hot spring water home in the bathtub and taking a bath, and his ulcer did not improve, while taking a bath in the tub with stand posture, the ulcers did cured. Obviously, water quality has little to do with ulcer healing but not the standing bath. The businessman and his physical friends scrutiny, and finally understand the truth: the standing spa bath and standing tub bath have one thing in common that the hydrostatic pressure of water gradually decreasing from the bottom up to thigh out of the water with zero water pressure.
The decline of bottom-up pressure indeed cured his ulcer. Businessman’s feet of ulcers was impossible to stand with a bucket to do the treatment at any time. So the textile manufacturers have invented a treatment with compression stockings. The feature of the socks is with maximum compression on ankle, and decrease gradually to the legs, followed by lap minimum.
Compression stockings are also called compression socks which useful to treat lower extremity venous disease and thought as a stovepipe products, with the function to promote the effectiveness of the venous blood return to the heart. Sequential medical compression stockings have maximum support pressure in the ankle, gradually decreasing up the down leg in the calf is reduced to 70 -90% of the maximum pressure value, reduced to 25-45% of the maximum pressure value on the thigh. Gradient change of compression could increase the pressure of this decreasing lower extremity venous blood return, ease or improve varicose veins and venous valves under hydrostatistic pressure.
