The job of compression socks is to squeeze your legs, which in turn squeezes the blood vessels in your legs.
The effect: better circulation, less swelling, and instant relief from leg and foot pain.
Increasing pressure on your legs to help blood flow. Whether standing or sitting, you spend most of your day upright, says Dr. Shmerling. In order for blood to flow against gravity back toward the heart, leg veins have special valves to help prevent it from going backwards.
"The way these little valves are designed, blood flow can only go in one direction," explains Dr. Shmerling. "With the help of leg muscle contractions, blood goes through the valves, they close behind it, and blood moves in the correct direction toward the heart, and everything's good."
In people who use their legs a lot and stand a lot, these valves fail over time - a condition called venous insufficiency. This causes blood and fluid to pool in your legs and make them swell. By squeezing your legs, compression socks help the valves in your blood vessels do their job.