Song Yi Shin, M.S.How can you improve your vascular health? You would undoubtedly answer that it is the exercise, and it is true. Your arteries deliver blood and oxygen to organs and skeletal muscle. When you start to exercise, your legs would need more blood to match the metabolic demands. At rest, a majority of your blood volume is in your veins. But during exercise, blood flow through tissues change dramatically, with 85% of blood going to your active muscles through arteries in hea...

Meredith Luttrell, Ph.DWe seldom think about physical effects of aging until that first wrinkle appears. While it’s easy to associate aging with changes in appearance, changes that occur within the body, such as impaired blood vessel function, are more likely to affect the quality of life even more. Cardiovascular disease affects 1 in 3 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and the risk of developing it increases with age. The term cardiovascular disease (CVD) encompasse...

Meredith Luttrell, Ph.D As we get older, a vibrant quality of life enables us to keep doing the things we enjoy and that bring meaning to our lives. Exercise is important for health, but it is also one of the best ways to stay energetic and independent with age. Aerobic exercise has numerous health benefits, including healthier blood vessels. While we tend to think of only the heart with cardiovascular health and disease, blood vessels play a very important role in maintaining cardiovascula...

John Seawright, B.S.Heart disease is a cruel ailment that befalls many Americans. It is a life threatening disease that does not strike only a single individual; the suffering proliferates through the patient’s entire family. Understanding the causes of heart disease can elucidate avenues of treatment, as well as provide pre-emptive strategies to prevent the disease in the first place.      Heart disease is a complex malady resulting from a poorly functioning ...

Majid Koozehchian, M.S.Homocysteine (Hcy) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid (i.e., an amino acid not used in proteins) normally present in the blood. Hcy is a by-product of normal diet but high levels in the blood can endanger cardiovascular health. It is formed from methionine, a proteinogenic amino acid, and can biosynthesize back to methionine or into cysteine, another proteinogenic amino acid, as well as several other substances. Benefits of Hcy are unknown; however, its harmful effects...

David Ferguson, Ph.D, RCEP   In today’s sporting environment, great importance is placed on the health education of the athlete. This includes proper nutrition instruction, health assessment, and the application of proper treatments and rehabilitation modalities to injured athletes. However, this is a fairly new development in sport, and athletes who competed 30 years ago did not receive these benefits. Because of this, many former athletes are being diagnosed...