The heart is our body’s most important organ because it brings blood circulation into itself. Many people are having trouble with the flow of blood these days. Many things can cause poor blood flow, such as not being active enough, eating a poor diet, and having a family history of heart disease.
If you have cold hands and feet, or if you have persistent foot sores, you should see a vascular expert.
What can you do to improve your body’s blood flow?
They both get better when you go for a jog. As an associate professor of vascular surgery at the University of California at Davis, Dr. Misty Humphries treats patients in Sacramento. She is also a board-certified vascular surgeon in Sacramento. When patients move, their arterioles open up, which increases blood flow through their bodies. The good idea is to get out of the house three times a week and walk for 30 minutes.
If you don’t like walking, you can still improve your circulation by doing anything that gets your heart rate up. As many as four or five days a week, try to work out for 20 minutes at a high-intensity level (think cycling, elliptical, HIIT). You should talk with your doctor about getting back into an exercise routine the last time you worked out.
Taking more breaks at work can help you do both of these things: One of the benefits of standing and sitting at different times is that it can help you keep your stress level in check, essential for your overall health.
Taking a short walk around your home or apartment every hour will help you break the habit of sitting for a long time.
By eating many fresh fruits and vegetables, you can get more of what you need.
Cutting back on sugar and fat will help you avoid high blood pressure, plaque buildup, and diabetes. As a last resort, Dr. Patel says that you should eat more fruits, vegetables, and other things your body needs to make nitric oxide. When this chemical molecule widens blood vessels, it improves blood flow.
Drink a lot of water.
Dr. Patel emphasizes how important it is to stay hydrated because your blood is about half water. When you’re not drinking enough water, your body’s circulatory system has a hard time working because your body is holding on to more sodium. As a result, your blood flow is cut back.
As a health risk, quitting smoking is a good thing to do.
In the future, if you smoke, you may have problems with your peripheral arteries (PAD). It causes leg pain (claudication) during and after a walk, and the tissue dies because there isn’t enough blood flow.
Smoking can cause plaque to build up and damage blood vessels. Quitting smoking can help lessen the damage. If you need medicine to help you stop smoking, your doctor can give it to you.
To keep an eye on your blood pressure, keep an eye on it and see how it goes.
Blood pressure makes your heart and arteries work harder and less efficiently, leading to heart disease and stroke, so it’s essential to keep your blood pressure down. Plaque (the bad cholesterol) can then build up because of the small holes in the artery walls. When there is too much cholesterol in your body, even the arteries in your hands and feet may become blocked.
Make sure to raise your legs.
To keep blood from building up in your lower legs, raise your legs above your heart level. This will help your body get more blood. Lifting your legs says Dr. Patel, is good because it helps keep blood from being pushed back into your veins even though your legs are naturally gravitational pulls.
