Are Big Heart Health Solutions in Small Blood Vessels
Late one night in 2008, during a stressful time, I went to the emergency room with many of the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, including rising troponin, the blood test used to confirm it. The fact that it was the same hospital where I held my father’s hand as he passed away from his second heart attack two years earlier did not help. An angiogram the next morning confirmed that all my coronary (heart) arteries were completely clear. Ten years later, in 2018, at another stressful time, my entire left hand turned purple, indicating central (heart) blockage of blood flow. My coronary calcium score (a test everyone over 40 should have) was a perfect zero.
So what happened? How could I have all these cardiac symptoms with beautifully clear arteries? The answer is that over 90% of the blood supply to the heart muscle comes through microvessels, tiny arterioles that bring precious oxygen and nutrients to this most precious organ. This microcirculation is highly susceptible to stress. This is why my cardiologist friend diagnosed my 2008 episode as “neurogenic angiospasm.” Within a year of that scary 2008 night in the ER, I moved my family out of New York City to more relaxed Colorado. Daily angina gone.
Microcirculation is the main blood supply of every organ in the body, including the brain. It makes up 74% of all the 60,000-100,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. Yes, all the blood vessels in your body would encircle the Earth at the equator three to four times. Your microcirculation consists of arterioles, capillaries and venules. The arterioles branch off the larger arteries and drive blood in a rhythmic pulsation (arteriolar vasomotion) into the capillaries, where the essential delivery of oxygen and nutrients happens, and which drain carbon dioxide and waste into the venules. The venules then join into larger veins to return that low-oxygen blood to the heart. So, your whole blood flow cycle is: heart to arteries to arterioles to capillaries to venules to veins to heart to lungs, then back to the heart to start again. Three-fourths of all those blood vessels are your microvessels or microcirculation.
The 30,000-foot view of blood circulation is that robust, rapid microvascular flow is necessary for the health of every organ in your body. The famous Chinese medicine physician and philosopher of the Song Dynasty, Zhu Dan Xi, wrote in 1380 AD that “All the 10,000 diseases begin with stagnation…” The heart especially depends on microcirculation, with over 90 % of its vessels being microvessels. Less than 10% are the two big left and right coronary arteries (and their four main branches) that get almost all the attention in modern cardiology and public awareness. That’s what an angiogram (a camera on a long tube) looks at the inside of, and where the stents go when they are blocked. So, a core component of your heart health is optimizing microcirculation.
From noticing patterns in the hundreds of cardiology papers and studies I have reviewed in medical journals in recent years, I am seeing a little Renaissance in cardiology: acknowledging the critical and usually-overlooked significance of microcirculation to heart health. These studies find, more and more each year, that most heart problems have impaired microcirculation as a component – including heart failure, coronary heart disease (plaque blocking arteries) arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), cardiomegaly (a weak, enlarged heart), and more. In fact, current research suggests that all heart issues, and high blood pressure, may have a microcirculatory component, in addition to poor nutrition, stress and social isolation.
Optimizing microcirculation is a highly effective, if not essential, way to build and maintain a healthy heart (and every other organ). The most proven, efficient and effective intervention in the world for doing that is a specific form of Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field therapy, or PEMF. Published research has demonstrated that, by greatly improving the pulsation of the smooth muscles surrounding your microvessels, it can improve tissue oxygenation by a truly astounding 30% within eight minutes, and sustain that effect for at least 12-18 hours. Other PEMF devices create perhaps a 3-10% improvement that fades rapidly once the treatment is finished.
I’m pretty sure if I had known about and used this type of therapy back in 2008, I would not have had the angina pectoris (chest pain) I was having almost daily, and been able to avoid the ER that night. Come learn more with me, and discover current research on the importance of microcirculation, next Wednesday, November 20th at 12pm Eastern Time. In the meantime, visit the educational page I created, at michaelgaeta.com/pemf (the Zoom link and call-in information are there under Fourth Thursday classes) and review the studies below. I’ll see you next Wednesday, so we can learn how to truly help ourselves, our loved ones and patients with leading-edge physical vascular therapy.
References: current research on the importance of microcirculation to heart health
Physiology and functional significance of the coronary microcirculation: An overview of its implications in health and disease
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666602224000247
Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction Across the Spectrum of Cardiovascular Diseases
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073510972105779X?via%3Dihub
ESC Working Group on Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation position paper on ‘coronary microvascular dysfunction in cardiovascular disease’
https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article/116/4/741/5731314
To go deep on improving cardiovascular health, join our leading-edge, multi-faculty online course with live classes every month, at cardiocourse.com. Use discount code micro10 for a permanent tuition discount, with my appreciation for reading this whole article. Even better, add our cancer and autoimmune courses for an additional 31% discount – click here for our Big Three Bundle. For an individual natural functional medicine consultation for yourself, loved one or patient, click here. And, for heart and brain health, be sure to check your Omega-3 Index, at michaelgaeta.com/store.