MedlinePlus recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days a week. Weight training and aerobics are forms of exercise but a brisk walk, dancing, swimming or working outdoors can provide enough physical activity to help you live longer and feel better. Exercise can help prevent diseases that affect your blood vessels. Arteries, capillaries and veins are the three types of blood vessels in your body.
Circulation
Exercise boosts circulation and can help prevent blood vessel problems associated with poor circulation like peripheral artery disease. Exercise enhances blood circulation in your body by increasing your heart rate. Your arteries expand and fill with blood as your heart rate increases. Your artery contracts to help your heart pump blood to other parts of your body. Your arteries pump blood to your capillaries, which then deliver blood to your veins. Your veins perform the final phase of circulatory system by pumping blood to back to your lungs and your heart.
The Role of Blood
Regular exercise can improve your body's ability to deliver nutrients to bones, muscles, blood vessels and other tissues throughout your body. Blood carries the oxygen that you breath into your lungs to cells in your blood vessels and other tissues. Blood transports hormones and nutrients from food to maintain and support growing tissues throughout your body. Exercise reduces your risk of blood vessel diseases by increasing nutrient-rich blood flow to tissues like your blood vessels. Blood also helps remove toxins and deliver disease-fighting substances to blood vessels and other tissues.
Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is a blood vessel disease that occurs when the force of the blood against your artery walls so high that you can develop heart disease and other problems. Exercising regularly can lower your blood pressure by strengthening your heart. A stronger heart requires less effort to pump blood through your arteries. This reduction in effort lowers your blood pressure by reducing the force of blood against the wall of your arteries. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular exercise may lower your blood pressure within one to three months.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol can build up inside of your arteries if you eat food with too much fat or dietary cholesterol. Cholesterol deposits harden inside your arteries and may lead to a blood vessel disease known as arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis occurs when your artery walls get thick, stiff and inhibit circulation. A Harvard Health Publications article reports that regular exercise can increase HDL cholesterol, which is "good" cholesterol that helps remove excess cholesterol from your arteries.
Weight Control
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute claims that higher body fat levels increase your risk for blood vessel diseases like coronary artery disease and high blood pressure. Physical activity like exercise encourages your body to burn fat for energy. Regular exercise can help you avoid these blood vessel diseases by controlling your weight.
