The Lifeblood of Good Health: Your Vascular System

When you think about the peak of health, you’re likely to picture yourself having lots of energy, physical strength, and clear thinking. It’s easy to forget that all these good things depend on the constant blood flow around your body. That’s what makes your vascular system so important — an astonishing 60,000 miles of arteries, veins, and capillaries.

This brilliant system carries out three essential functions for every organ and tissue in your body:

1. Delivers oxygen extracted from the air you breathe.
2. Delivers nutrients extracted from the food you eat.
3. Carries away carbon dioxide and other toxic waste. 

Realistically, you can only live as long — and as well — as your vascular system allows! Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to take care of your blood flow, but you need to know a little about how it works. 

A Hidden Wonder: The EGX

Inside the entire vascular system lies a delicate, intricate structure called the endothelial glycocalyx — or EGX for short. It’s the inner lining of every single blood vessel in your body, from the biggest arteries to the smallest capillaries. Medical science has only recently uncovered just how important the EGX is, and how it can best be protected. 

The EGX is microscopically thin, which is why it took so long to discover. It’s also extremely complex and very dynamic, quickly adapting as the blood flow changes. 

Here are just a few of its critical functions:

• The EGX provides a selective barrier between the flowing blood and the rest of your body. 
• It sends signals to trigger a process that relaxes your blood vessels — essential for healthy blood pressure.
• It contains natural antioxidants that counter the aging effects of free radicals.
• It supports the natural clotting function of the blood.

As a barrier, the EGX is semi-permeable, which means it allows some of the contents of the blood to pass into the body while keeping other pieces out.  There are elements in your blood, like oxygen and nutrients, that must be allowed through to keep you alive. And there are other elements that it’s just as important to keep out. 

In addition, your body needs to discharge waste into the bloodstream, to be carried away and released in the urine. The EGX is organized to allow this vital function, too. With all these different roles, you can see why it’s sometimes described as a “smart barrier” — and why it’s so decisive for your overall health.

Surprisingly, it can take decades for new scientific discoveries to enter medical education, so healthcare practitioners are only now beginning to learn about the EGX. Nevertheless, more than 50 years after its discovery, this marvelous structure has become a focal point for groundbreaking scientific research, because of its vital importance to human health. And today, every practitioner who’s serious about vascular health focuses on the EGX as a top priority.

Make Your EGX Happy 

When it comes to maintaining a healthy EGX, you play the most important role.  Because it’s so sensitive and dynamic, the EGX is highly responsive — for good or ill — to all the activities that shape our health day-to-day. Once you realize how your entire body depends on this one delicate structure, you’ll want to do all you can to keep it in good shape. Fortunately, that doesn’t require anything complicated.  

Specifically, your EGX is asking you to:

• Eat plenty of leafy greens and other fresh vegetables and fruit.
• If you eat meat, eat wild seafood and pasture-raised animals.
• Limit your sugar intake.
• Keep physically active day by day.
• Manage your stress.
• Get plenty of high-quality sleep.
• Enjoy as much sunshine as you safely can.
• Avoid smoking and moderate your alcohol intake.

Once you’ve got these lifestyle essentials in place, there’s also a positive role for nutritional supplements. 

Exciting new developments have revealed some natural substances that directly support the health of the EGX. In particular, a rare green seaweed has been shown to hold high quantities of a natural compound called rhamnan sulfate, or RS.  This potent compound stimulates the growth of new EGX cells. Scientists have discovered that it’s a great way to maintain the healthiest possible inner lining for your blood vessels. 

Conclusion to Improve the Vascular System

To sum up, if you take good care of your vascular system, it will take good care of you. That means that you should watch out for your EGX, the natural protector of your 60,000 miles of blood vessels. 

You now know what many clinicians are still learning: that the EGX is essential to your vascular vitality and overall health. Better still, you understand how to keep it in tip-top condition. 

References

Cancel, Limary Melissa, and John M. Tarbell. “Rhamnan Sulfate Enhances the Endothelial Glycocalyx and Decreases the LDL Permeability of Human Coronary Artery Endothelial Cells in Vitro.” The FASEB Journal, vol. 27, no. S1, 2013, p. 896.3-896.3, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.896.3.

Man, Andy W. C., et al. “Impact of Lifestyles (Diet and Exercise) on Vascular Health: Oxidative Stress and Endothelial Function.” Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, vol. 2020, Sept. 2020, p. 1496462, https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/1496462.

Reitsma, Sietze, et al. “The Endothelial Glycocalyx: Composition, Functions, and Visualization.” Pflugers Archiv, vol. 454, no. 3, June 2007, pp. 345–59, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-007-0212-8.

Wolfson, Jack. “Your Vascular System: The Unsung Hero of Human Longevity.” Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, vol. 22, no. 6, Jan. 2024, pp. 52–53, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10886395/.

Witzleb, E. “Functions of the Vascular System.” Human Physiology, edited by Robert F. Schmidt and Gerhrad Thews, Springer, 1989, pp. 480–542, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73831-9_20.