Varicose veins with plum blossom needle?

You can treat varicose veins and other signs of blood stagnation in Chinese Medicine with plum blossom needling, bloodletting and/or cupping. You should start by reading the section on bloodletting within the Japanese Acupuncture section. The appropriate precautions and some basic techniques are presented and it should answer most of your questions. The most important precaution is to never apply bloodletting and/or cupping directly on the varicose veins themselves. This can raise risks of blood clots being released, but more likely infections.

Generally you use these techniques for smaller capillaries to resolve the stagnation and then the body will work to resolve the varicose veins. For single capillaries you can use larger guage needles or lancets to bloodlet, for larger collections (spider veins) you can use plum blossom needling with or without cupping. General needling -around- the varicose veins themselves to resolve inflammation and stagnation is also appropriate.