Appreciating Your Entire Cardiovascular System

by Baxter

The Heart of the Circus by Marc Chagall*

Sometimes it’s easy to equate your cardiovascular system with its engine, the heart. But, as we shall see, it is so much more than that. It’s also common to think of the cardiovascular system as the part us we “exercise” when we do aerobic activities, such as running, biking, and active hiking. But this system is just as essential for quiet times as it is for active ones. And understanding a bit about how your cardiovascular system works will help you realize how important it is to use your yoga practice to keep this system—as well as its related systems—functioning optimally. Fortunately, yoga can help keep the heart and blood vessels strong and responsive, and give you tools to quiet the engine down to a purr when resting. See Techniques for Improving Cardiovascular Health for information on techniques.

Heart. At the center of the cardiovascular system is the heart, a unique muscular structure whose strong contractions send blood throughout your body. The heart has a built-in electrical system that sets the rhythm of the contractions of the heart, which can work independently if necessary. But in normal situations this electrical system is in constant communication with your brain via nerves and hormones to adjust to your changing activities moment by moment. Finally, the heart has its own blood vessels that feed it continuously. Yoga is a great tool for exercising your heart muscle, and for helping to balance and regulate its electrical system. And studies show that yoga can also help keep your heart’s blood vessels open and flowing. 

Blood. The liquid that flows through the cardiovascular system contains red and white blood cells, platelets that help form scabs, proteins, glucose, minerals, and hormones. This is provides the fuel needed by all parts of your body and moves the waste effectively to the kidneys and liver for processing. A well-rounded asana practices supports the efficient flow of blood throughout your cardiovascular system.

Blood Vessels. The tubing that the blood moves through to reach all parts of the body goes by different names according to function and size. They include:

• Arteries and Arterioles: Transport blood from the heart to capillaries to distribute fuel-rich blood to all parts of the body and takes blood to the lungs to get oxygen and release carbon dioxide. These vessels assist in maintaining steady blood pressure by either relaxing or contracting the tube walls.
• Capillaries: With walls only about one-cell thick, they allow fuel and waste products to move in and out of the cardiovascular system throughout your body. 
• Veins and Venuoles: Return blood from the capillaries back to the heart, first through the smaller venuoles and eventually through larger veins. Veins are not as thick as the arteries and rely somewhat on physical activity to contract and relax the muscles they pass through and between to squeezes blood back to the heart. So active asanas and inverted poses can assist with the efficient return of blood to the heart.

Chest Cavity. Your heart physically resides in your chest cavity, and is cradled by your lungs to its right and left side, the diaphragm below it and your spine and ribs behind it. So the overall health of your chest cavity has a general supportive role in heart and cardiovascular system health. For a healthy person, a well-balanced yoga practice will help you maintain optimum functioning of your chest cavity. For a person who has gained weight, been sedentary or inactive, or has poor posture, you can use your asana practices to improve the strength and flexibility of your chest cavity and restore your posture to a healthier state and support your heart. 

Now we’re going to turn our attention to certain organs and systems that the cardiovascular system interacts with, so you can understand how using your yoga practice to support those systems can help your cardiovascular system. But keep in mind that the cardiovascular system interacts with everything in body! No cell in your body is more than a few millimeters from a capillary, as blood supplies nutrition to all the cells, removes waste from all the cells, distributes hormones throughout the body as chemical messengers, and distributes white blood cells for immune system and repair jobs. 

Brain and Nervous System. Depending on your activity levels, your brain and nervous system make moment-by-moment adjustments to your heart rate and the force of your heartbeat as well as to your blood pressure. And because your brain and nervous system are so important to the overall health of your body, the cardiovascular system supplies your brain with blood via four different arteries—more than any other organ or system of the body—to almost guarantee that it gets a continues supply of food and quick clearing of waste. See How To Foster Brain Healthy with Yoga.

Respiratory System. The cardiovascular system circulates blood through your lungs to pick up oxygen that you’ve inhaled, and then transports the oxygen-rich blood to the rest of your body. And when the blood is returning to the heart (after being cleansed by the liver and kidneys), the lungs receive carbon dioxide from the blood so you can exhale it. Healthy lung function is an integral part of your cardiovascular system, which is why some anatomists refer to the two systems together as the cardiorespiratory system. See Techniques for Supporting Respiratory Health. 

Digestive System. Your cardiovascular system circulates through your intestines to absorb digested food in the form of sugar, fat, and protein molecules into capillaries and then transports it to other organs for processing. For example, the cardiovascular system delivers sugar from the digestive system to the liver, which then converts it into storage particles for future use. See How Yoga Helps Your Digestive System.

Liver. In addition to storing glycogen, your liver filters your blood to remove toxins and clean it before the blood is returned to your heart. Without a healthy liver, the blood and body gradually become toxic. Practicing yoga to support your immune system (see Techniques for Supporting Your Immune System) as well as circulation (see Techniques for Improving Cardiovascular Health) will support overall liver health.

Urinary System. Before your blood returns to your heart, your kidneys filter it, clearing many kinds of waste molecules and extra salt molecules, such as potassium and sodium, and moving them into urine for removal from your body. Without healthy kidneys, your blood and body will gradually become toxic and lead to serious illness. Practicing yoga to support your immune system (see Techniques for Supporting Your Immune System  as well as circulation (see Techniques for Improving Cardiovascular Health) will support overall kidney and urinary system health. 

Spleen. This organ, which sits in the upper-left of the abdomen, clears out old red blood cells, recycling the iron of those cells, and helps clear the blood of bacteria. It also provides a reservoir of about a pint of blood for release if blood levels suddenly drop, such as with a laceration to a major artery. Practicing yoga to support your immune system (see Techniques for Supporting Your Immune System) as well as circulation (see Techniques for Improving Cardiovascular Health) will support overall spleen health. 

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