One gallon. The same amount as a gallon of milk. That’s how much blood is pumping through your body at any given time. Given that your heart is about the size of your fist, it has quite the job.
Sometimes, as we age, our heart doesn’t circulate blood the way it used to, and we have to give it a helping hand. Ready to get flawless wellness and help out?
Learn how to improve circulation below.
1. Walking
Walking is more difficult for some than others, but we’re not telling you to go walk multiple miles in the wilderness. We’re talking about walking more throughout the day when you can if you’re able.
Walking is what the human body was naturally made to do – and when your legs are moving, your blood is flowing!
You can walk at any pace (even only once around the block) to reap the benefits, even if it’s slower than you’d like to admit.
How does it increase circulation? When you walk, almost every muscle in your leg fires in successive order. That muscle activity requires blood, and the blood gets pushed from one muscle to the next – all the way down to your feet.
Walking is especially helpful if you’re prone to clots or pooling under the skin. That circulation can help break up (small) clots and keep everything healthy and moving.
2. Drinking Enough Water
Getting the right amount of water every day does wonders for your body. There isn’t one organ that doesn’t use water in some way, including your heart and your circulatory system.
Think about your dehydrated blood as honey. Now think about how far your blood has to go from your heart to your toes – only relying on the power from one pump of the heart, which is a tiny electrical impulse.
What would be easier and faster for your heart to pump: thick, honey-like blood or a juice-like consistency? Juice-like, right? That’s what your well-hydrated blood acts like in the body.
The more water you drink, the easier it is for blood to flow. There is such a thing as too much water (your body weight times .66 in ounces), so make sure you’re only drinking what your body needs. Aim for that number (or close to it) every day and your blood should flow with ease.
3. Don’t Cross Your Legs
Crossing your legs at the thigh or ankle makes it harder for blood to flow. That’s why nurses and doctors will always ask you to put your feet on the floor when they’re taking your blood pressure.
If you sit with your legs crossed too often, you’re cutting down on the amount of blood your lower legs/feet get. They’re still getting enough to function, but you may notice they’re achy and sore after sitting in a cross-legged position for a while.
4. Eat the Right Foods (Or) Take the Right Supplements
There are a few specific vitamins and minerals that boost your circulatory system and help it work better. You may have heard of one of them, Omega 3 fatty acids.
Omega fatty acids occur organically in fish, but only in fatty fish that didn’t come from a low-quality commercial fish farm.
Even if you had access to the kind of fish quality you’d need to get these fatty acids organically, you’d have to eat a lot of it to get the benefits.
Most people take their fish oil as a supplement. In our opinion, it’s best taken before bed since the oily-substance inside the capsule can make you burp once it opens up in your stomach.
Omega 3 fatty acids can help everything from circulation to memory, to how shiny your hair is – so taking them can’t hurt. Just to be safe, talk to your doctor before making thempart of your routine if you’re taking any medicines.
Vitamins B, C, and E
Along with Omega 3 fatty acids, you should eat a diet rich in vitamins B, C, and E. You might know vitamin C as the immune boosting vitamin. There’s a lot of it in citrus fruits, hence vitamin C- for citrus.
Your immune system plays a big role in your circulation, blood health, and blood cell production. It controls when the body makes which type of cells and you need both red and white cells to function.
Vitamin B does all sorts of things and has a lot of sub-types. Vitamin B12, for example, boosts energy and mental clarity.
Unlike Omegas, you can get plenty of vitamin B by beefing up your diet. Red meat has B vitamins, as does brown rice and most dark, leafy vegetables.
Broccoli, steak, and brown rice is the perfect balanced B-friendly meal.
If you want to check your Vitamin B levels then visit https://www.thehealthhub.com/product/vitamin-b12/.
After this text:Vitamin B does all sorts of things and has a lot of sub-types. Vitamin B12, for example, boosts energy and mental clarity.
Finally, vitamin E helps to widen the blood vessels naturally so that more blood can pass through. You can get vitamin E from foods like broccoli, spinach, almonds, and the all-powerful avocado.
Basically, the more earth-based and organic food you eat, the better your circulation will work. If you don’t have the appetite, supplements are an option, but it’s always better and more efficient to get the vitamins from the real thing if you can.
If someone else controls your diet, this useful link will give you information about making that place (and your diet) more of your own.
How to Improve Circulation
There are a lot of things we can’t control about getting older. Our wrinkles, how we’re always tired, or that our grandkids seem to grow at 3x the rate our own children did.
One thing you can control is learning how to improve circulation. No one’s going to do it for you, except maybe your doctor – and do you really want to take another set of pills?
Us neither. Want to get out of the house and get your blood pumping? Check out this new business.
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