Blood Health
Exercise and Endothelial Functioning
Sep
You know exercise is good for you, but do you know exactly how?
The relationship between regular, healthy exercise and your endothelial cells—the cells that line your veins and arteries and are essential to your whole circulatory system—shows a strong, mutually beneficial relationship.
What Exercise Does For Your Stem Cells
Exercise helps support the amount of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs–the stem cells that replace and repair the lining of your blood vessels) in the body, which can lead to better overall health. Exercise-induced increases of EPCs can improve your body’s ability to heal itself with your own naturally produced adult stem cells. Exercise and the promotion of these cells leads to an increase in cardiovascular health, especially for those suffering from chronic heart failure or coronary artery disease. Exercise increases the cells that maintain multi-system wellness in your body.
What EPCs Do In Relation to Exercise, Fitness, and Health
Not only does exercise promote the number of EPCs in your system, the relationship is reciprocal. The more endothelial progenitor cells circulating throughout your body, the better access you have to the resources that make exercise easier as you get into your routines. Better repair mechanisms and blood flow increase your strength until your body is capable of harder challenges. For example, the time it takes to go from a weekend jogger to a marathon runner can go a lot faster and more successfully if you have a healthy supply of endothelial progenitor cells. These cells promote new blood vessel growth to better deliver more nutrients and oxygen to your growing muscles. Improved blood flow can also help heal the micro tears that come with increasing your muscles through exercise, and most importantly these cells can assist in repairing many injuries via healthy circulation that you might suffer in the pursuit of better health (such as sprains, tendinitis, and joint stress).
Exercise and endothelial progenitor cells work in symbiosis; the more you have of one, the more you can get of the other, in a healthy, regenerative cycle.
