Uncle Li took the physical examination sheet with a smile, looking at the health indicators on it 73-year-old Uncle Li felt full of vitality, and even the doctors praised Uncle Li's physical health, especially Uncle Li's blood vessels are very healthy, not only there is no obstruction and stenosis common to the elderly, but even plaques are rarely found.
This can envy Uncle Zhang, who came with him on the side, Uncle Zhang and Uncle Li are about the same age, but the health of blood vessels is diametrically opposed.
Uncle Zhang was found to have mild hyperlipidemia two years ago, and although he tried his best to prevent it over the years, this examination still showed that the blockage of blood vessels was aggravated, and there was a trend towards atherosclerosis.
The doctor warned Uncle Zhang that his blood vessels are not healthy, and the incidence of some acute diseases such as myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction will increase significantly, so he must pay attention to it in the future.
After hearing these words, Uncle Zhang was even more envious of Uncle Li, so on the way back, he couldn't wait to ask Uncle Li what was the reason for keeping his blood vessels so healthy.
Vascular health has received more and more attention in recent years, but most of the elderly in life are facing the same dilemma as Uncle Zhang, how to maintain blood vessels has become a problem, today we will combine Uncle Li's experience in maintaining blood vessels to talk about how the elderly blood vessels should be maintained.
From childhood to old age, it takes you to see the changes in your body through your blood vessels
Before understanding how to maintain blood vessels, we must first understand how the blood vessels in our body will change as the elderly age.
As we all know, human blood vessels are divided into arteries and veins, which are connected by capillaries, and the arteries will carry oxygen and energy substances to various tissues and organs after passing through the systemic circulation, and then transform into veins.
Because of the difference in function between the two, there is a difference in the structure of the artery and vein.
Relatively speaking, in the systemic circulation, the arteries are sent from the heart, and in order to meet the hemodynamic needs, the arteries are usually thicker, and in addition to the vascular endothelial cells, they often contain thick vascular smooth muscle, and the cells contain a large number of elastic fibers, which are fully dilated and elastic.
The vein is relatively superficial and much less elastic, so the number of smooth muscle layers of the external blood vessel is much less than that of the vein, and because the intravenous vascular flow rate and anterior-posterior pressure difference are relatively small, there is a special structure venous valve in order to prevent venous reflux.
And these structures are not static as a person grows.
For infants and young children, the blood vessels are not fully developed, and the blood vessels are shorter and thicker than those of adult infants, with thick official cavities, thick smooth muscle layer, elastic feet, and fast blood flow in the blood vessels due to the fast energy metabolism of infants.
However, because the heart is still developing, the heart's pumping function is weaker than that of adults, so the intravascular pressure is relatively low, and the blood vessel wall is relatively thin. As a result, infants and young children's blood vessels are relatively susceptible to physical damage from the outside world, and extra care is required.
As people grow up slowly, our blood circulatory system gradually develops and improves, although the extravascular smooth muscle layer is relatively thinner and the elasticity is slightly reduced, the blood vessel wall thickens, the resistance of vascular endothelial cells to the stimulus increases, and the intravascular blood pressure rises to adult value.
With the development of the blood circulatory system, the resistance of blood vessels to physical stimuli has increased dramatically, and we do not have to be as particular about diet as infants and young children for fear of damaging blood vessels.
And due to the perfect development of blood vessels, the blood supply to the major organs in the body is more sufficient, and the functions of various organs have entered the heyday, that is, the young adult period of our normal people.
At this time, we are healthy, our limbs are strong, and our organs are in harmony. But everything has prosperity and decline, and when people gradually enter middle and old age, the blood vessels also enter the ranks of aging.
Some low-density fats, cholesterol, and sugars in our diet accumulate in our blood vessels for a long time, coupled with blood clotting, plaque, intracellular elastic fibers, and vascular smooth muscle degeneration caused by vascular endothelial cell damage. Blood vessels will reflect changes such as lumen narrowing, blockage, thinning of the tube wall, decreased elasticity, and increased fragility.
At this time, due to insufficient blood supply, middle-aged and elderly people can no longer carry out heavy physical and high-intensity exercise, and the function of various organs is reduced to varying degrees. In old age, there may also be a decrease in blood flow to the limbs and cold and weak limbs, which is also one of the important reasons for the unsteady walking of the elderly.
It can be said that the development of blood vessels from childhood to old age is closely related to our growth and is closely connected, and the importance of protecting blood vessels is self-evident for us to prevent diseases and maintain health.
Septuagenarians have clean blood vessels, and it is important to keep their blood vessels healthy
So how should we take care of our blood vessels? Uncle Li, who is 73 years old and still has healthy blood vessels, gave the answer above that the following four points are very important to maintain the health of blood vessels.
Point 1: Smile and speak
This is the first of Uncle Li's self-described health secrets, as the saying goes, a smile is less than ten years, and this sentence is also applicable to blood vessels.
The changes in our mood and mentality depend on the regulation of a variety of hormones in the body, such as the secretion of dopamine will increase when we are happy, and the relative secretion of endorphins when we are sad; these hormones will not only cause feelings of euphoria in the relative nerves of the brain, but also have a great impact on the body's metabolism, especially the metabolism of sugars, which is easily affected by these hormones and causes glycolysis disorders, generating excessive ketones, causing harmful substances to accumulate in the blood vessels.
Especially when we are angry, angry, and nervous, the body's internal norepinephrine and adrenaline secretion increases, autonomic nerve secretion imbalance and renal renin secretion increases, which will cause peripheral vasoconstriction, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and metabolic disorders, so that the probability of vascular endothelial cell damage is greatly increased. Therefore, maintaining a good attitude has become the first principle practiced by Uncle Li.
Point 2: Keep your mouth shut
Maintaining a healthy diet and maintaining the health of blood vessels is a common topic, but there are very few people who can actually do it in life. For the elderly, there are only three principles of eating for vascular health: low sugar, low fat, and low salt.
Sugar and lipids are important factors for blood vessel blockage, and the increase of blood glucose and lipids will increase blood viscosity, slow down blood circulation, increase blood pressure, and induce a series of diseases such as atherosclerosis and thromboembolism.
High-salt foods will increase the concentration of Na+ in the blood, which can easily cause sodium and water retention and increase blood volume, affect the normal function of sodium and potassium pumps, and increase the burden on the kidneys and induce hypertension and other diseases. And Uncle Li also realized this early on, and he has adhered to this dietary principle for decades, so that his blood vessels will be so healthy.
Point 3: Step out
Many elderly people turn exercise into a young thing after entering old age because of their weak legs and feet, but they don't know that it is this move that accelerates the deterioration of their blood vessels.
It is a reality for the elderly to decline their joints and muscles, so it is by no means for the elderly to exercise at high intensity, but to do aerobic exercise every day, such as jogging, brisk walking, etc.
These behaviors not only promote digestion and avoid the accumulation of harmful substances, but also promote metabolism, accelerate fat burning, and most importantly, exercise the heart.
Maintaining a certain amount of aerobic exercise can exercise the heart, improve the pulmonary circulatory function, enhance the contractility of the myocardium, as the absolute center of the blood vessels of the whole body, the function of the heart is closely related to the health of blood vessels.
Keeping the heart pumping blood vigorously and evenly is the best way to maintain blood vessels.
Number 4: Quit smoking
This is Uncle Li's advice to the smoker Uncle Zhang, and it is also Uncle Li's health experience of banning smoking for so many years. Many people associate smoking with lung disease, but they don't know that the harm to the heart is not small at all.
There are more than 80 known carcinogens in a cigarette, among which nicotine, tar and other substances will directly induce high blood lipids and high cholesterol and greatly increase the probability of atherosclerosis.
The British Medical Journal once counted a data that showed that a person who smokes an extra cigarette a day has a 48% increase in the probability of coronary heart disease and a 30% increase in the risk of stroke!
This is enough to illustrate the cardiovascular harm of smoking.
The golden thirty seconds of first aid for myocardial infarction must be learned!
Above, Uncle Zhang mentioned a disease when he was warned by the doctor to pay attention to cardiovascular health after the physical examination: myocardial infarction. As one of the diseases with the highest cardiovascular mortality rate, myocardial infarction is also a top priority in addition to daily prevention.
Myocardial infarction is due to insufficient blood supply to the brain caused by myocardial necrosis caused by cardiac hypoxia, this disease has a rapid onset, short effective treatment time, and a very high mortality rate, especially when the acute and bad attack is often accompanied by the patient's coma, so the first aid measures in vascular myocardial infarction are of great significance to save the patient's life and reduce the sequelae.
First of all, we should immediately place the patient in a flat place and lie down, and raise the legs slightly to lower the circulating blood pressure, and at the same time call the patient's name loudly to maintain the patient's consciousness, and we can also press the patient's philtrum with our hands until the patient's brow is furrowed so that the patient remains relatively conscious.
Then make a fist with both hands or make a fist with one hand and the other hand assists in compression, rolling from right to left and reminding the patient to inhale, to stimulate the pectoral muscles and improve the patient's ischemic state.
While doing this series of first aid, don't forget to call 120 and follow your doctor's instructions for other first aid. The onset of myocardial infarction is acute and the sequelae are large, and grasping this golden thirty seconds may pull the patient back from the ghost gate and greatly reduce the sequelae of myocardial infarction, so hurry up and learn it.
Bibliography:
[1] Ren Xiaonan, "Defending Blood Vessels is Defending Health: Lowering Cholesterol is a Protracted Battle".2023.11.15.
[2] Li Zhuo, "Pay Attention to Peripheral Vascular Health".2023.10.15.
[3] Zhang Cuntai, "Delay vascular aging, help you live a long and healthy life".2022.12.05.
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