Many of us have blood circulation problems that we are entirely unaware of until a visit to the doctor's office. For some, genes and aging contribute to this issue, but for many, lifestyle issues that include long periods of sitting cause the problem. While you may not be able to do much about a work environment that requires you to spend long periods seated behind a desk, circulation boosting nutrients may be another way to help with the situation.
Good circulation is essential for the proper functioning of all your organ systems, and it plays a pivotal role in supplying oxygen to each cell throughout your body. It is vital for cardionomic, heart, and metabolic health. It also plays a role in the healing of wounds and injuries as well as body temperature regulation.
Some of the issues associated with poor circulatory health include:
For many people, the use of certain medications helps with circulatory issues. But most medications tend to have contraindications that may cause symptoms of their own.
Massage and exercise may help with increasing your blood flow because it stimulates your heart and thus circulation.
And there is no doubt that exercise is good for you. But with certain health conditions, like advanced adrenal fatigue, it may do more harm than good. This is especially true if you are someone leading a sedentary lifestyle. So, if you decide to start doing exercise to help with your circulatory issues, opt for a brisk walk or perhaps yoga. These do not put too great a strain on your heart muscle, but you do get the benefits of doing exercise.
It is also important to stay hydrated because a large portion of your blood consists of water. Drinking enough water thus helps improve your circulation. It also helps your body flush out toxins and improves fatigue.
Circulation boosting nutrients are another way to help increase your heart and metabolic health as well as improve your body's ability to detoxify. This is because of the pivotal role played by the blood in each of these three bodily systems. Circulation boosting nutrients may help address various shortages that lead to poor circulation as well as other health issues.
Likewise, by addressing your circulatory issues you may address metabolic, and detoxification issues as well.
Your Detoxification circuit, Cardionomic circuit, and metabolism all form part of your body’s NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response. These circuits are part of six total that comprise your body's response to stress. These circuits and systems are all interconnected, and what affects one often affects the others. Understanding the role of these three circuits in circulatory issues helps to clarify how circulation boosting nutrients are able to help multiple systems.
Your heart, the key organ in your circulatory system, pushes blood along your blood vessels linking all organ systems and body parts. Although a normal heartbeat is 60 to 100 times a minute, it can go much faster when it needs to. One such time is when your body goes into a state of stress. This stress could result not only from exercise but also from psychological or environmental factors.
In its transfer of blood, your heart plays an important role in respiratory function as it takes oxygen from your lungs. From there, it takes it to all parts of your body. Furthermore, it also sees to the circulation of the various hormones produced by your endocrine system, which consists of various hormone-producing glands across your body, including your adrenals. As such, the adrenals play an important role in NEM function.
For proper function, your endocrine and cardionomic systems thus need to work together, and circulation boosting nutrients may be a key element in this. This is because they support both endocrine and heart function.
Because of its close relationship with your NEM response, prolonged stress may lead to Cardionomic circuit dysfunction. Once this happens, symptoms appear. These symptoms include:
Metabolic health is closely related to nutrition. The main function of your metabolism is to convert food into energy. To this end, your body needs various vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. But it is your circulatory function that then sees to these vitamins and minerals reaching each organ and cell in your body. At the same time, your metabolism also sees to the health of the various blood vessels in which your blood moves.
Yet you may find that your diet lacks the essential vitamins and minerals your metabolism needs to fulfill its job correctly. This means that a diet containing the necessary circulation boosting nutrients may improve metabolic function as well as cardionomic, and thus circulatory, function.
Additionally, metabolic function plays a key role in adrenal health because your adrenals, as part of your NEM response, need the nutrients derived from proper metabolic function to produce the necessary hormones your body needs when dealing with stress.
Symptoms associated with metabolic dysfunction include:
Your Detoxification circuit plays a pivotal role in NEM functions. It gets rid of the toxins and waste materials your body produces in the normal course of events to maintain a state of homeostasis.
If something compromises your detoxification function, toxins heap up in your body and add more stress, often to an already overloaded NEM stress response. These toxins may compromise adrenal, cardionomic, and metabolic function.
Your body’s detoxification function is, to a large extent, dependent on your circulatory system, because many of the toxins in your body move through your blood until they reach those organs dealing with elimination. These organs include your liver and kidneys.
Circulation boosting nutrients may thus positively affect your body's ability to clear out unwanted toxins.
These circulation boosting nutrients can be divided into the foods you eat and the supplements you take. While whole foods are often better, sometimes supplements are necessary to get what you need.
We should ideally get all the necessary circulation boosting nutrients we need from our diet, including organic fresh fruit, vegetables, and lean protein. This also includes the spices and various herbs we incorporate into our cooking. Meanwhile, it is important to leave out processed foods, bad fats, and sugary foods. These may add to the body’s stress load and compromise adrenal function. This may, in turn, compromise circulation, heart health, detox function, and metabolic processes.
Good food choices that help boost circulation include:
Garlic has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It may help with your body’s circulatory processes by relaxing and widening your blood vessels. If you don't like fresh garlic, you could consider using garlic powder or well-cooked garlic, although this reduces its potency.
Turmeric is a mild spice that contains curcumin, an antioxidant that helps support blood vessel function. The spice is commonly used in various Asian foods like curry. FermPlex P is an anti-inflammatory supplement containing fermented curcumin.
Hot peppers contain capsaicinoids. These compounds may help with blood pressure and cholesterol control. They also increase vascular health and reduce inflammation and the damage from free radicals.
You do need to be wary when using hot peppers or taking the capsaicin compounds as a supplement, however, because it could cause nausea, bloating, and stomach pains. Also, the spicy compound could cause a burning sensation in your stomach.
Two compounds found in cinnamon, cinnamic acid and cinnamaldehyde, may reduce inflammation and have a relaxing effect on blood vessels. Cinnamon powder may also have a beneficial effect on your blood pressure.
Other herbals supplements that may help improve your body’s circulatory function include:
A lack of certain vitamins and minerals may contribute to a compromised circulatory system. If this is true for you, certain supplements could help address this issue.
You should first talk to a qualified healthcare practitioner before embarking on a course of supplements, however. This is because certain supplements could cause adverse reactions, especially if you have other conditions like adrenal fatigue, or you take medication. They could also further compromise adrenal health, depending on your stage of adrenal fatigue. By first talking to someone qualified, you could avoid many of the complications.
The antioxidant properties of vitamin A help prevent oxidation on your artery walls that could cause blockages.
Natural food sources high in vitamin A include oily fish like tuna or cod, spinach, carrots, squash, broccoli, and cantaloupe.
Niacin, or vitamin B3, strengthens blood vessels and helps to increase blood flow. It also helps with red blood cell production and helps prevent arterial hardening.
Vitamins B9 and B12 help neutralize homocysteine function. This amino acid is a vascular incident risk factor and negatively influences vascular circulation.
Good natural sources of the B vitamins include leafy green vegetables like spinach and kale.
Vitamin C plays an important role in immune health, helps prevent blood clot formation, and helps strengthen your vascular system. A great way to get more vitamin C are supplements like LipoNano C and Adrenal Support.
Foods high in vitamin C include citrus fruits, all peppers, guavas, strawberries, pineapple, broccoli, potatoes, and tomatoes.
This vitamin helps keep the lining of your blood vessels healthy. The sun is a great source of vitamin D. But you can also take a supplement like D5000 Plus and find small amounts of vitamin D in certain foods. Good food choices for vitamin D include fatty fish like tuna or salmon, beef liver, cheese, eggs, and mushrooms.
The antioxidant properties of vitamin E help improve blood circulation. It also plays a role in red blood cell production and oxygen transportation throughout the body. Natural sources of vitamin E include vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and leafy green vegetables.
Selenium promotes heart health by reducing hypertension. Good food choices for selenium include dairy products, eggs, and lean protein.
Your blood needs iron to make hemoglobin, a red blood cell component that helps carry oxygen throughout your body. Good food choices with high iron content include lean red meats, tofu, spinach, beans, lentils, cashews, and broccoli.
Arginine helps with wound healing, the removal of waste products from your body, hormone function, immunity, and the dilation and relaxation of your arteries. Good arginine food sources include nuts, seeds, brown rice, dairy products, and lean protein.
Omega-3 fatty acids play a role in blood vessel relaxation and blood flow. Great omega-3 dietary sources include oily fish, flaxseeds, walnuts, soybeans, eggs, dairy products, and lean red protein. A good supplement for Omega-3s is Liquid OM-3.
Quercetin may have a positive effect on the health of your blood vessel walls and help prevent atherosclerosis. This antioxidant is found naturally in onions, apples, grapes, citrus fruits, capers, and tea. It can also be used as a supplement such as Allerdim.
You cannot rely on one specific vitamin or nutrient to improve your circulation. Your body is a complex mechanism made up of different organs and systems that each fulfill a specific function that, at the same time, is connected to other functions. So, when one portion of this system is compromised, various systems ultimately become affected as well. With regards to the nutrients you put into your body, you therefore must make sure that you balance things out.
While taking supplements may help address deficiencies, the best bet is to follow a healthy, comprehensive diet that sees to all your dietary and nutritional needs. This means consuming a variety of fruits and vegetables, eating fatty fish, and consuming lean protein foods. By taking this approach, you give your body what it needs to function at an optimal level while addressing many of the health issues resulting from a stressful lifestyle.
Your circulatory system impacts and is impacted by all bodily functions. It plays a role in oxygen movement throughout the body, while serving as a means for transporting toxins out of your body and the various nutrients and minerals your body needs to their end destination.
If you suffer from circulatory issues, here are a few things you can do.
Do remember that blood circulation issues have various causes. Before using various vitamin or mineral supplements, first talk to your healthcare professional about the need for these and dosage.
If you would like to know more about or need assistance with circulation boosting nutrients, the team at Dr. Lam Coaching can help. We offer a free** no-obligation phone consultation at +1 (626) 571-1234 where we will privately discuss your symptoms and various options. You can also send us a question through our Ask The Doctor system by clicking here.
Your body is a complex system, and good nutrition keeps this system working optimally. Your adrenals form an integral part of this system. By introducing circulation boosting nutrients into your diet, you also supply adrenal support.
