Stretching increases blood flow, boosts oxygen levels and helps deliver nutrients to your muscles. It also removes metabolic waste like carbon dioxide, ammonia and uric acid.
You stretch to make your body more flexible and less stiff. But did you know it can do the same for your blood vessels? It's true. New research from the University of Milan in Italy showed that a 12-week stretching regimen improved blood flow, lowered blood pressure, and decreased the stiffness of arteries.
Researchers evaluated the effect of passive stretching on the blood flow locally and in the upper arm. They found that the arteries in both the lower leg and upper arm had increased blood flow and dilation when stimulated, along with decreased stiffness.
When inflamed, the blood vessels may become weakened and stretch in size, which can lead to aneurysms. The vessels also may become so thin that they rupture resulting in bleeding into the tissue. Vasculitis can also cause blood vessel narrowing to the point of closing off entirely (called an occlusion).
Vasodilators are medications that open (dilate) blood vessels. They affect the muscles in the walls of the arteries and veins, preventing the muscles from tightening and the walls from narrowing. As a result, blood flows more easily through the vessels. The heart doesn't have to pump as hard, reducing blood pressure.
Direct vasodilators directly affect the muscle cells that line your blood vessels. They make your muscle cells relax so that blood vessels open. Because they work quickly, they can cause more side effects. Healthcare providers use direct vasodilators when other treatments haven't worked.
Vasodilation occurs when the smooth muscle located in the blood vessel walls relax. Relaxation can be due to either removal of a contractile stimulus or inhibition of contractility.
It keeps the arterial lining smooth and slippery, preventing white blood cells and platelets from latching on and causing damaging inflammation and artery-blocking blood clots. In addition, it relaxes the smooth muscle cells of the artery wall's middle layer, preventing spasms and keeping arteries open.
Normal wear and tear damages the blood vessel lining, which is called the endothelial lining. The body, however, has the ability to initiate molecular activity that regenerates and repairs this damage.
Not only can regular leg stretching help reduce cramps and muscle strains, it also may be another way to protect against heart disease and stroke.
Stress can lead to inflammation that irritates the nervous system causing constriction of blood vessels. This constriction results in reduced blood flow and oxygen to the muscles. Lack of oxygen diminishes the ability of the muscles to recover and heal from stress and inflammation.
Vasodilator medications
Drugs called vasodilators can cause your blood vessels to widen. They can either act directly on the smooth muscle of the blood vessels or on your autonomic nervous system, which is the part of your nervous system that regulates vasodilation and vasoconstriction.
Preliminary studies and case studies have shown that modifying cardiac risk factors (particularly exercising and reducing cholesterol) can definitely decrease atherosclerotic plaques (particularly soft plaques).
The key is lowering LDL and making lifestyle changes.
"Making plaque disappear is not possible, but we can shrink and stabilize it," says cardiologist Dr. Christopher Cannon, a Harvard Medical School professor. Plaque forms when cholesterol (above, in yellow) lodges in the wall of the artery.
Such studies showed that conduit arteries increase in size as a result of exercise training (Dinenno et al.
Magnesium also restored some of the blood vessels' ability to open up when the body needs more blood.
Nitric oxide is produced by nearly every type of cell in the human body and one of the most important molecules for blood vessel health. It's a vasodilator, meaning it relaxes the inner muscles of your blood vessels, causing the vessels to widen. In this way, nitric oxide increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure.
Angioplasty uses a medical "balloon" to widen blocked arteries. The balloon presses against the inside wall of the artery to open the space and improve blood flow. A metal stent is often placed across the artery wall to keep the artery from narrowing again.
Angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure used to open a narrowed or blocked blood vessel, which could be an artery that carries blood from the heart to the body or a vein that carries blood back to the heart.