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Exercise - Essential For CirculationExercise is vital. Humans are not made to sit around for
long periods. It is only in recent centuries that the majority of the population has spent so much time
sitting on production lines, at desks or workstations, watching TV or playing computer games.
It is not just the heart, lungs and muscles which benefit
from exercise. Exercise is vital for whole body health.
To understand why, we must understand what happens when
the blood circulates on the microscopic level; and also the importance of a secondary circulating
fluid...
Good Circulation Is A Major Key To Keeping
Healthy Increased circulation is the major benefit of exercise.
What needs circulating in the body?
1. The blood - this is pretty obvious; but good
circulation of:
2. The lymph, is also vital for good
health.
The What?!
Yes - the lymph. It is very, very important to keep the
lymph fluid circulating well. The lymph is the fluid, other than blood, that is contained within the tissues
of the body.
The lymphatic system is a network of blind-ended vessels,
and nodes that transport the lymph throughout the body.
The lymph nodes (or lymph glands) are little nodules
within the lymph vessels which are 'factories' for making white blood cells.
There are particular concentrations of these in your
groin, throat, and armpits.
When the lymph nodes swell and become tender, it is
usually a bad sign and a good sign! It is a bad sign in that you have an infection, somewhere near the
swollen nodes; but a good sign in that the lymph nodes are 'working overtime', to produce extra white blood
cells to fight off the infection.
It is important to note that the lymph vessels are
blind-ended. Lymph has no equivalent of a heart to pump it around the system; it relies on being squeezed by
our muscles as we move. It can pass through the vessels in one direction only thanks to the blind ends of the
vessels acting as valves. There is only one way to circulate this vital lymph fluid. And that way is -
exercise.
What Does Lymph Fluid Do? To help you to
appreciate the importance of the lymph fluid to good health, let's have a look at what it does.
Firstly, lymph completes the circulation of the blood. As
the blood vessels get tinier and tinier, components of the blood are squeezed out through tiny gaps. This
fluid - called tissue fluid - carries nourishment with it to every cell.
Once the tissue fluid has passed on its nourishment, the
lymph vessels help to collect it up again. The fluid now also contains waste products passed into it from the
cells, such as dissolved carbon dioxide.
The lymph vessels then direct the tissue fluid back
towards the blood circulation system again. The waste products are removed from it, mainly in the kidneys and
liver.
Secondly, the lymph fluid has a vital task in
transporting white blood cells around the body. White blood cells are the major component of our IMMUNE
system. They are rushed immediately to any area of damage or inflammation in the body. They fight off
invading 'pathogens' (bugs); and repair or recycle damaged body cells coming to the end of their life
cycle.
[Next: Exercise and the vital Lymph
Circulation...]
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