The Importance of Good Blood Circulation and Tips to Improve it

Blood circulation: Red = oxygenated Blue = deo...
Blood circulation: Red = oxygenated Blue = deoxygenated (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Everyone has likely heard that good blood circulation is important to your overall health. As the blood cardiovascular system consists of the heart and blood vessels that run through the body, proper circulation plays a major role. The blood is responsible for transporting oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the arteries, muscles, and vital organs. The easier time the blood has circulating through the body, the better off it is for your overall well being. Let’s dig a bit further:

Impact of Poor Circulation

Poor circulation is when the blood is not freely flowing through the body. The reason is due to blocked arteries. Blocked arteries usuall spells trouble for the vital organs, particularly the heart and the brain. Essentially it means that your body is not receiving the nutrients it needs to function properly. This can lead to issues that include:

  • High blood pressure
  • Dizziness
  • Muscle Cramps
  • Numbness or Tingling
  • Blood clots
  • Hemorrhoids
  • Carpal tunnel
  • Stroke
  • Varicose Veins
  • Organ failure

It’s important to pay attention to the signs of poor circulation so that you can address the matter before things get out of hand. Below are a few suggestions on how to improve your blood flow:

Get a Massage – Massages are great for helping to improve blood circulation. If you can afford to, try getting a periodic massage. The massage helps to increase blood flow through varying strokes that are used by the massage therapist. Long strokes can help the fluid to move freely through the circulatory system. If you can’t afford a massage, you could create your own spa at home by investing in massage supplies, such as those offered by massagetableoutlets.com.

Kick the Bad Habits – Are you known to smoke, drink a lot, or consume a great deal of sugar and trans fats? All of these bad habits could be attributing to your poor circulation. Whether you need assistance in quitting habits like smoking or drinking or you can quit on your own, it’s probably a good idea to start scaling back.

Change Your Eating Habits – There are a bunch of superfoods that you can start incorporating into your diet to improve your blood circulation. Some of those foods include oranges, dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, sunflower seeds, root ginger, garlic, salmon, watermelon, and avocados.

Exercise – Another way to improve blood flow is through routine exercising. While any form of movement will do, some forms of exercise that can be especially great for improving circulation is aerobics and weight training. Aerobics helps to release sugar and other toxins from the body through the use of oxygen while weight training is the opposite as it helps the body to use the sugar for energy. Alternating between these forms of exercise can be great for your overall health. It is recommended to exercise at least 3-5 times per week for 30 minutes for the best benefits. Of course, if aerobics and weight training don’t interest you, you can try things like taking a brisk walk at the park or playing sports. Anything that gets the body in motion helps to remove toxins, sugars, and fats that could be blocking the arteries.

Use Products – Have you ever seen your favorite athlete dressed in high stockings or socks? These are known as compression socks and they can work wonders for improving circulation. The socks provide a comfortable amount of pressure to the legs which allow for blood to move more freely throughout the body. There are different types of socks you can choose from to gain the most benefit.

You may not have realized how important blood circulation is to your overall wellbeing, but as you can see it is extremely important. Whether you’re in good health or have issues with circulation the above mentioned tips can be great for improving your health. While it might be a bit of a challenge to adapt to these changes, taking it one day at a time is better than doing nothing at all.