Endothelial Health

We've looked at the facts regarding the situation of heart disease in America today and now we begin to look at the science behind these facts. Why are we in this situation? What causes these problems. I'm no scientist. I'm not even a doctor. But the facts speak for themselves and there are some very excellent resources out there, available to the inquisitive mind. And, if you want a better life of physical health than, say, some of your friends and family have had . . . and maybe even yourself to this point. . . . let's take a look together.

Here is a cross cut section of an artery. The very thin lining inside the artery is called the Endothelium. This lining is only one cell thick, but if you took it out of all your arteries and spread it out over an area, it would be about the size of 6-8 tennis courts! This lining is where "the rubber meets the road", so to speak. This is where we have the ability to be healthy or unhealthy "cardiovascularly".

And where does your cardiovascular system not touch? Anywhere you bleed, if you are cut, is affected by your cardiovascular system and thus by your cardiovascular health!

If you have a nice, smooth, slick endothelium, then you have good artery flow. Especially if it is nice and pliable. If it begins to get stiff or clogged up, like with the plaque in this picture, then you have a problem.

The layer between the endothelium and the outer surface of the artery is the smooth muscle layer. What do you think happens if this layer constricts? For instance, if you are out in the cold and your hands, arms, feet and legs begin to get cold, what is happening? That muscle layer is constricting because of the cold, and is restricting the blood flow to those arteries because your heart, lungs, brain and other major organs require the extra blood flow.

You have about 100,000 miles of arteries in your body (some the size of your finger, some the size of spaghetti, and some the size of a 10th of the diameter of your hair!) You need all of your blood cells to be able to get through ALL of your arteries, so you need them to be soft and pliable: not constricted. Then, if you add the problem of plaque buildup, the blood flow is restricted even further.

I know you've heard the saying, "the Life is in the blood". It's true. It really is your life blood. And where blood does not flow because of whatever the problem, death occurs.

A healthy endothelium is like "Teflon": a smooth surface that enhances the flow of blood. Of course, we don't want "old teflon". What happens when teflon gets old? That's right. It begins to flake off and things start to stick to the surface. An unhealthy endothelium is like "Velcro", causing white blood cells and platelets to stick to it.


This book, entitled "The Cardiovascular Cure: How to Strengthen Your Self-Defense Against Heart Attack and Stroke" is written by John P. Cooke, who is an MD AND has a PhD, was the head of Stanford Medical Vascular Research at the time of the writing of the book and is now the head of Harvard Medical Research. I'll be using several quotes from this book as we go along with this series. As I said before, there are numerous resources out there: a host of books and hundreds of research papers have been written on this subject that we are examining.

I do not want to bore you, but I do want to impress upon you the seriousness of this apparent epidemic that plagues our country today. I also want you to know the why . . . . . and how YOU CAN PREVENT IT!

Next time, we will continue to look at how important to your life is your endothelial health!