Blood Vessels

Foods That Make Blood Vessels Flexible & Elastic

Your health depends on elastic, flexible blood vessels to keep your blood flowing efficiently from your heart and lungs to other parts of your body. When your blood vessels harden and clog, they become less elastic. This makes it more difficult for your heart to pump blood through your vessels, causing health problems. Eating certain foods to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure can improve your cardiovascular health. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet to improve your cardiovascular risk.

All About Blood Vessels

Can Yoga Cause Broken Blood Vessels in the Legs?

Compared to many other methods of exercise, yoga is relatively risk free and unlikely to have negative impacts on your health. However, occasionally people who practice yoga suffer from broken blood vessels, which can occur in ...

Broken Blood Vessels Due to Exercise

Broken blood vessels may occur under the skin or in the eye. When they are under the skin, they may be called ruptured capillaries or bruises. In the latter case, they are called subconjunctival hemorrhage. Blood vessels break ...

Does Coffee Dilate Blood Vessels?

Caffeine -- the active ingredient in your coffee -- has a number of effects on your body when it first works. The effects may be unpleasant when the caffeine breaks down in your system. One example of how caffeine affects your ...

Do Calcium Supplements Cause Blood Vessel Deposits?

Too little calcium can lead to weak bones, but taking supplements to boost calcium levels might lead to troubling side effects in certain people. Doctors sometime prescribe calcium supplements for patients who suffer from weake...

Nutrition to Strengthen Blood Vessels

High blood pressure is one of the greatest risks to the health of your blood vessels. High pressure on your blood vessels can lead to serious damage that threatens your life. The health of your blood vessels and other parts of ...

Does Garlic Prevent Plaque in Blood Vessels?

Garlic, now grown in many parts of the world, is a native of Asia. Twenty varieties and a range of colors including green and purple provide interesting options for discerning garlic-lovers. Garlic has been used for its culinar...

Ruptured Blood Vessels & Weight Lifting

Weight lifting requires a tremendous effort on the part of an individual's muscles -- so blood vessels may be ruptured by the strong exertion necessary to accomplish this task. While most weight lifting related ruptured blood v...

Vitamins That Dilate Your Blood Vessels

Vitamins play a significant role in many of the functions inside your body. Your cardiovascular health depends on your vitamin intake as well. Certain vitamins keep your blood vessels healthy by maintaining their pliability and...

Will Drinking Vinegar Help Clean Blood Vessels?

Having high cholesterol or clogged blood vessels and arteries can put your overall health at risk. Though traditional medications and lifestyle changes are the typical treatment path, some choose to use natural or alternative r...

What Is a Lymph Cleanse?

Your lymphatic system consists of a fluid called lymph and lymph nodes. This system runs parallel to your blood vessels, transporting various nutrients, proteins, minerals and salts throughout your body; it also transports wast...

How Sodium Damages Blood Vessels

If you're like most Americans, however, you consume more of this essential mineral than you need but less potassium, another electrolyte. In the correct ratio, the sodium and potassium relationship regulates your blood pressure...

Diet to Improve Blood Vessels

Your blood vessels are the tubes that transport blood throughout your body, bringing oxygen and nutrients to your cells and removing carbon dioxide and metabolic waste products from your body. Blood vessel problems can lead to ...

What Are the Causes of Bloody Noses in Kids?

Most people, including children, typically get nosebleeds in only one nostril, in the front part of the nose, which contains fragile blood vessels that are susceptible to irritation and injury. There are many common causes of n...

Cold Hands and Lack of Energy

Cold hands, for instance, can occur in response to environmental conditions or can be a warning sign of a problem with the blood vessels or nerves in the hands. When your hands feel persistently cold and you also experience a l...

Food That Strengthens the Blood Vessels in the Eye

The blood vessels in your eyes play an important role in the health of your eyes and your risk of eye disease, including macular degeneration and cataracts. Regular visits to your eye doctor help monitor the health of those blo...

Broken Blood Vessels and Eating Disorders

The appearance of broken blood vessels in the eyes is one of the visible symptoms of an eating disorder that includes frequent vomiting. Other physical signs include dry or blotchy skin, thinning or dry hair, and a swollen paro...

Broken Blood Vessels Around My Eyes From Wrestling

It's a combat sport, where two athletes try to force the other's body into specific positions. Although the rules of wrestling are designed to ensure fair and safe competition, wrestlers should expect to sustain minor injuries ...

Does Coffee Constrict the Blood Vessels?

It helps to pick you up in the morning and give you a boost of energy because it contains caffeine. Though coffee is generally harmless, consuming too much of it can cause physical problems, and may even affect your blood vessels.

Caffeine & Blood Vessels

Caffeine is a substance many people encounter on a daily basis. After all, it's in coffee and tea, and many people use these stimulants for a morning energy boost. However, caffeine can directly affect the body and can cause ne...

Herbs & Medications That Relax Blood Vessels

Your blood courses through 60,000 miles of blood vessels throughout your body, supplying oxygen and nutrients to your cells and ferrying carbon dioxide and waste products away from cells. The health of your blood vessels determ...

What Are the Benefits of Vitamin E on the Blood Vessels?

Vitamin E is an antioxidant-rich fat-soluble vitamin that holds many benefits for the body. A diet rich in vitamin E can help keep the blood vessels healthy and able to easily transport oxygen-rich blood to the heart and other ...

Circulatory System: Blood Vessels During Exercise

It works double time to supply oxygenated blood to those laboring muscles that need it most and to carry away the waste products of metabolism, such as carbon dioxide, for disposal. The circulatory system, including the blood v...

How to Exercise Blood Vessels

Improving vascularity, or the size and shape of blood vessels, is a pivotal part of bodybuilding and bodybuilding competitions. Larger and more numerous blood vessels make a person appear more muscular and reduce the perception...

Blood, Heart & Vessel Exercises

The cardiovascular system depends on the health and function of the vasculature and circulating blood as well as the heart pump itself. Exercise benefits the vasculature and heart muscle as much as it improves skeletal muscle f...

How Does Chocolate Effect Blood Vessels & Circulation?

While surgery and medications treat heart disease, they do not prevent heart disease. Diet and lifestyle changes are the primary means of prevention. Chocolate used as an adjunct to a healthy diet and lifestyle may help prevent...

How Nutrients Create New Blood Vessels in the Brain

Blood vessels provide your brain cells with sugars, oxygen and other nutrients required to function. The development of new blood vessels helps maintain a blood supply to all the tissues within your brain. All blood vessels con...

Tiny Broken Blood Vessels on the Legs From Running

The small veins in the legs can be damaged by disease, advanced age or trauma. The location of the injured veins is important in determining the cause. Identifying what produced the injury is the first step in prevention and tr...

Does Caffeine Constrict Blood Vessels?

Are the cups of coffee your drink clamping down on your circulation? Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant and has complex effects on your blood vessels. Initial caffeine intake may promote vasodilation, but continued inta...

Does Exercise Cause Broken Blood Vessels?

Broken blood vessels, more commonly referred to as bruises, frequently result from bumps and falls that take place during exercise. Most broken blood vessels are not a cause for medical concern and heal within two weeks, althou...

Foods That Strengthen Blood Vessels

The blood vessels are part of your body's circulatory system. They transport depleted blood to the lungs and from your heart and carry blood from your heart to other body organs. The blood carries nutrients and oxygen necessary...

How Does Chocolate Affect the Blood Vessels & Circulation?

There are approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels in an adult male, according to "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine." Unclogged, intact vessels are essential to properly transport oxygen and nutrients in the blood...

How to Dilate Blood Vessels With Herbs

Constriction of your blood vessels can occur for many reasons. Most often high blood pressure, or hypertension, is the underlying cause. Unfortunately, there are no symptoms to indicate blood vessel constriction. Left untreated...

Foods That Inhibit Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones. This occurs in normal physiological processes, such as wound healing and the menstrual cycle. However, angiogenesis is also necessary for cancerous tumors ...

Food for Healthy Blood Vessels

The blood vessels are part of the circulatory system. They carry blood from the heart to other organs in the body and transport depleted blood back to the heart and lungs. The blood carries oxygen and nutrients necessary for th...

Anatomy of the Heart & Blood Flow

Within this sac it contracts freely to pump blood to your lungs for oxygenation. It pumps the oxygenated blood to the rest of your body and returns wastes. To understand the intricate functioning of your heart and blood flow it...

How to Keep Healthy Blood Vessels

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States, but keeping your blood vessels healthy can go a long way toward reducing your risk, according to MayoClinic.com. Though you may have a family o...

Vitamins for Weak Blood Vessels

Blood vessels are arteries, veins and capillaries through which your blood circulates in the body. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, capillaries connect the arteries to veins and veins carry the blood to the heart. The ...

Natural Foods to Clean Blood Vessels Out

Certain natural foods lower your cholesterol by cleaning out your blood vessels and arteries. According to the American Heart Association, saturated fats are responsible for clogging blood vessels with cholesterol, which leads ...

Foods You Can Eat That Help Blood Vessels to Dilate

Dilating or widening blood vessels increases blood flow throughout the body, which can improve heart health, lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation. Evidence indicates that certain foods boost the production of nitric oxi...

What Foods Relax Blood Vessels?

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a disease of your blood vessels where there is abnormally high pressure being exerted against your blood vessel walls. The excessive force stretches and weakens the vessel walls, which c...

Foods That Dilate Blood Vessels

High blood pressure, also identified as hypertension, is a chronic health condition that results in the decrease of dilated, or fully expanded, blood vessels. Several factors contribute to the development of high blood pressure...

How Does Exercise Prevent Blood Vessel Disease?

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 af...

Bumps on the White Part of the Eye

Bumps on the white part of the eye might be so small that they are only a cosmetic annoyance or they can be so large that they hinder your vision. Most bumps are harmless and will grow and shrink over time, but sometimes these ...

Nutrients for Strengthening Blood Vessels

According to The Franklin Institute, if an adult's blood vessels were fully extended, they would total approximately 100,000 miles in length. This vast collection of vessels, which includes arteries, veins and capillaries, carr...

What Foods Dilate Blood Vessels?

Dilating or widening blood vessels enhances blood flow throughout the body, which can help reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol and combat heart disease. Although supplements and medications can be taken to improve blood ve...

Vitamins That Strengthen Blood Vessels

Blood vessels carry your blood, so having strong blood vessels is crucial to the health of every part of your body --- especially your heart, which constantly pumps your blood through a complex network of vessels. Certain vita...

Zinc Supplements to Clean Out Blood Vessels

Its effects range from being a key factor in growth, to being a required ingredient for a healthy immune system. One particular role that zinc plays is its protection and maintenance of the lining of blood vessels.

Supplements That Dilate Blood Vessels

Supplements or prescription medications that cause the blood vessels to dilate or open are called vasodilators. According to Mayoclinic.com, vasodilators are used to treat various medical conditions such as hypertension or inc...

Circulatory System: Blood Vessels During Exercise

The different systems of the body work in harmony to deal with stress. Exercise, although healthy and beneficial, is considered stressful to the body. The circulatory system has various mechanisms in place to change the dynamic...

What Are the Treatments for Broken Blood Vessels?

Broken blood vessels in the skin often occur from sun exposure or other skin damage, appearing most frequently on the face and legs as people age. Broken blood vessels, often called telangiectasia, can also develop as part of a...

Causes of Left Arm Numbness

Nerve injuries, spinal conditions, blood vessel disorders, electrolyte imbalances and certain medications can all cause numbness and tingling throughout the body, especially the extremities. Left arm numbness is a common health...

Exercise & Blood Vessel Disease

Blood vessel disease is a grouping of disorders that affect the arteries, including the coronary, carotid and peripheral arteries. The one component that most of these conditions have in common is atherosclerosis, which is char...

What Are the Causes of Broken Blood Vessels on The Face?

Facial blood vessels dilate easily, according to SmartSkinCare.com, causing abnormally enlarged veins near the surface of the skin. Known as telangiectasia, these capillaries, or tiny blood vessels, may be over-extended in diam...

What Are the Causes of Broken Eye Blood Vessels?

Blood vessels in the eye supply the tissue with needed oxygen and nutrients. Eye blood vessels occasionally break, causing bleeding. The appearance of a broken eye blood vessel often causes alarm. Bleeding in the white area of ...

Big Blood Vessels in the Legs

The major blood vessels of the leg fall into two subcategories. Arteries carry blood away from the heart and toward the body tissues. Since the arterial blood is meant to supply tissues and cells with oxygen and nutrients, this...

Heart Conditions in Teens

Heart conditions can affect people of all ages, from infants to adults. Your child may have been born with a heart condition that was not diagnosed until he became a teenager, or he may have developed a heart condition as the r...

Temporal Arteritis Symptoms

Temporal, or giant cell, arteritis is a condition affecting older people characterized by inflammation of arteries in the head and neck. Inflammation leads to swelling and scarring of the blood vessel walls, interfering with th...

Angiogenesis Factors

Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels within the body. Angiogenesis occurs naturally within the body and is regulated by stimulating and inhibiting factors. The body turns on stimulating factors when new blood vessels...

What Are the Largest Blood Vessels in the Body?

Blood vessels deliver blood from the heart to the tissues, and return oxygen-depleted blood to the heart. The vascular system is made up of three vessel types. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, veins return blood to the...

How Do Blood Vessels Work?

The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart, blood and blood vessels. Though it's not uncommon to consider the vessels merely piping that carries blood to the tissues and returns it to the heart, in fact, the vessels are...

Herbs That Strengthen Blood Vessels

Regular use of herbs can support strong blood vessels and the overall healthy functioning of your circulatory system. Try these herbs alone or in combination to help treat and avoid circulatory conditions such as thrombosis, va...

What Herbs Promote the Growth of Blood Vessels?

The National Library of Medicine says that blood vessels are a network of interconnecting veins, capillaries and arteries that provide a pathway for blood from and to to the heart. There is a number of herbs that can help to pr...

Main Functions of Blood Vessels

The blood vessels consist of three major subcategories. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, and are generally the thickest and most muscular of the vessels. Veins carry blood back to the heart, and are relatively thin-wal...

Effects of Nicotine on Blood Vessels

Eating a well balanced diet low in salt, fat and cholesterol, managing stress and getting regular exercise will all help. In addition, it is important to quit smoking and using products with nicotine (found in tobacco leaves), ...

What Herbs Promote the Growth of Blood Vessels?

Blood vessels are one of the most important structures in the body. Designed to carry various substances all over the body, vessels such as veins, arteries and capillaries need to maintain strong, yet flexible walls. Certain co...

The Major Blood Vessels in the Human Eye

To function properly, the eyes require constant nourishment from the vascular system. Red eyes are usually caused by broken blood vessels in the conjuctiva, near the surface of the white of the eye. However, the major blood ve...

Definition of Hemostats

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome during surgery is internal bleeding. Surgeons need to be able to close off blood vessels, especially arteries, to prevent the surgical field from getting blocked by blood and to prevent ...

What Are the Causes of Broken Blood Vessels in the Eyes?

Small blood vessels under the surface of the eye can break, creating a condition known as subconjunctival hemorrhage. Because the surface of the eye can't absorb blood quickly, the blood becomes trapped and disperses under the ...

Broken Blood Vessels in Eyes Symptoms

A broken blood vessel in the eye, also known as a subconjunctival hemorrhage, may suddenly appear on the white of the eye with no known cause. Many people have broken blood vessels after a strong bought of coughing, sneezing or...

Bloody Noses in Kids

The inside of the nose is filled with many small blood vessels close to the surface. Even minor damage to the nose lining can lead to a bloody nose. Although it can be a frightening experience for a child and parent, most noseb...

How to Strengthen Blood Vessels of the Eye

Your eyes need a constant supply of blood to ensure they receive the necessary nutrients for good vision and to keep the blood vessels flexible, says Holisticonline.com. Regular eye exercises and relaxation techniques can help ...

Norepinephrine Vs. Epinephrine

Norepinephrine and epinephrine are chemicals that dictate metabolic responses within the body, such as oxygen release in muscles, blood vessel dilation and constriction and raising blood pressure. These processes are activated ...

Alternatives for Angiography

Angiography describes a diagnostic procedure that allows doctors to visualize the inside of blood vessels. Angiography can determine the blood flow in and around organs such as the lungs, brain and kidneys, but doctors commonly...

Complications of Angiography

Angiography describes a diagnostic procedure used to help doctors visualize blood vessels in the body, even those in organs such as the heart, lungs or kidneys. To perform this procedure, doctors insert a thin plastic tube, cal...

What Causes Broken Blood Vessels Around the Eye?

Broken blood vessels around the white of the eye cause a bright red patch, called a subconjunctival hemorrhage. The red area should not cause pain or vision changes. The hemorrhages act much like a bruise on the skin, and they ...

What Are the Treatments for Bicuspid Aortic Valve?

The aortic valve separates the lower left chamber of the heart, the left ventricle and the aorta, the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the body. The one-way aortic valve normally has three leaflets, or cusps. B...

Blood Vessel Disease Symptoms

The heart and blood vessels work together to deliver blood that contains oxygen and nutrients to every part of the body. Big blood vessels like arteries and veins, as well as smaller blood vessels, are found everywhere in the b...

Allergic Eye Inflammation

Allergic eye inflammation is caused by allergic conjunctivitis, or allergic pink eye, according to FamilyDoctor.org. Allergic conjunctivitis is a condition in which the thin, clear layer that protects the eyes is damaged by all...

Heart & Blood Vessel Disease

The circulatory system carries water, oxygen and nutrients to all the cells in the body. This vital function requires the three components of the system; the heart works as the motor, the blood vessels provide the highways, and...

Differences Between Blood Vessels & Lymph Vessels

Together with the heart, blood vessels represent the main component of the circulatory system, which consists of an elaborate network of tubes throughout the body. The circulatory system involves the combined functioning of the...

Symptoms of GI Bleeding

Bleeding is classified as overt, or visible, and occult, meaning not visible with the naked eye. Many disorders from dilated blood vessels in the esophagus and ulcers in the stomach to cancer in the colon can cause GI bleeding....

What Are the Causes of Busted Blood Vessels in Eyes?

Busted blood vessels in the eye typically cause an area of bright red to appear on the white of the eye, a condition called a subconjunctival hemorrhage. In most cases, a person will not require medical attention, and the redne...

How to Relieve Engorged Breast

La Leche League International reports that breast engorgement following childbirth is relatively short-lived--lasting just a day or two for most women. Breast engorgement occurs when the blood vessels in the breast become conge...

Cardiac Ablation Risks

The procedure most commonly involves threading a long tube, or catheter, through a blood vessel in the leg to the heart to carry out the ablation. Potential risks accompany a cardiac ablation procedure, although most patients a...

Intramuscular Landmarks

To avoid injury to underlying nerves and blood vessels, the person administering the injection selects one of several approved sites in the thigh, upper arm or hip. The choice of site depends on the patient's age and muscl...

Exercise and Blood Vessel Disease

One of the major blood vessel diseases is called coronary heart disease, also called coronary artery disease. Arteries that surround the heart are called coronary arteries. These arteries deliver blood that is filled with fres...

What Are the 5 Major Functions of Blood Vessels?

Blood vessels carry blood from the heart to all parts of the body and then back to the heart--more than 2,000 gallons of it every day, according to the American Heart Association. The total length of this network in one human b...

Effects of Cholesterol on Blood Vessels

The body produces the necessary amount of cholesterol it needs. Some foods also contain cholesterol. Problems arise from too much cholesterol in the blood, which can damage blood vessels.

What Minerals Strengthen Blood Vessels?

Healthy blood vessels are essential for proper circulation, as blood is pumped from the heart to carry nutrients to the cells throughout the body by way of the arteries and then returns to the heart through the venous system, a...

Broken Blood Vessels in the Brain

A broken blood vessel in the brain is known as a hemorrhagic stroke. Arterial bleeds generally have worse outcomes than vascular bleeds, but either form can be life-threatening. With prompt treatment, it is possible to surviv...

What Are the Causes of Floaters?

Floaters are tiny specks, dots, squiggly strands or other shapes that appear to float across the visual field. According to the National Eye Institute, they occur when the gel-like vitreous shrinks and becomes stringy strands t...

Herbs That Open the Blood Vessels

Opening blood vessels improves blood flow and blood pressure and can decrease the risk for medical conditions such as stroke or heart attack. There are a number of herbal medications that can help to open blood vessels. However...

What are the Main Blood Vessels of the Body

Blood vessels can be grouped into three categories: arteries, veins and capillaries. Arteries are the blood vessels that transfer blood away from the heart to the organs. They are the thickest of the blood vessels because they ...

Herbs to Strengthen Blood Vessels

Your blood vessels are responsible for carrying blood from your heart to other areas of the body, and then back to the heart. There are several types of blood vessels, including veins, arteries and capillaries, and when any of ...

Supplements That Strengthen Arteries & Blood Vessels

Proper circulation is essential for general health and well-being. Healthy arteries and blood vessels carry essential nutrients and oxygen to tissues and organs throughout the body. Certain natural supplements can strengthen bl...

Diseases of the Heart & Blood Vessels

The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart and blood vessels, which work together to deliver oxygenated blood to the body and transport oxygen-deficient blood back to the lungs for reoxygenation. The function of the card...

Reasons for Bloody Noses

The lining of the nose contains many tiny blood vessels that lie close to the surface and damage easily. Consequently, many injuries, drugs and diseases can cause a bloody nose, also called epistaxis. Dr. D.J. Pallin, in "Annal...

Cardiac Cell Functions

The heart functions as the motor of the circulatory system, which consists of the heart, blood vessels and blood. The heart pumps approximately 2,000 gallons of blood through the body each and every day, according to the Americ...

The Effects of Caffeine on Blood Vessels

Without considering caffeine's numerous effects on the body, you grab a cup of coffee and wait for it to wake you up. Caffeine has effects on many aspects of the body, particularly the blood vessels. The National Institutes of ...

What Are the Major Blood Vessels?

Shirley A. Jones's "Pocket Anatomy and Physiology" provides a pictorial guide illustrating the nature of the closed circulatory system, adding a visual component to the discussion of the major blood vessels of the human body. ...

Causes of Broken Eye Blood Vessels

However, if the red area bulges or causes pain and changes to vision, you should contact an eye doctor. A broken blood vessel may happen spontaneously, without a known cause, but understanding some of the known reasons for the ...

Five Drugs That Affect the Heart & Blood Vessels

The circulatory system of the body consists of the heart, blood vessels and blood. The heart works to pump the blood, which travels through the complex network of arteries, veins and capillaries to supply all the cells of the b...

Angiography Types

Angiography is a procedure in which specialized imaging techniques help to analyze the flow of blood through blood vessels. A dye that is visible by x-ray, called contrast dye, is injected into the catheter, and x-rays are used...

Reasons for Bloodshot Eyes

Enlarged, dilated blood vessels lead to redness on the surface of the eye, according to Medline Plus, the National Institutes of Health website. The redness becomes even more pronounced because the vessels enlarge on the surfac...

Drugs That Affect the Heart & Blood Vessels

Together your heart and blood vessels comprise the cardiovascular system. Substances you ingest daily such as caffeine, nicotine, over-the-counter preparations for flu and cold symptoms, weight loss and increased stamina affect...

What Are the 3 Kinds of Blood Vessels?

Blood vessels are a part of the circulatory system, which also contains the heart. They make up a closed system, which delivers blood from the heart to the body, returns blood to the heart, and helps exchange nutrients, wastes ...

Hereditary Diseases of the Blood Vessels

Blood vessel diseases are those that affect any type of vessel, including arteries, capillaries and veins. There are several different hereditary diseases of the blood vessels.

Different Kinds of Blood Vessels

Blood vessels are hollow tubes that allow blood to flow throughout the body. If all the blood vessels of an adult, including the veins, arteries and capillaries, were laid end to end, they would stretch for 100,000 miles, accor...

What Are the Different Kinds of Blood Vessels?

Blood vessels are a system of tubes that vary in size, structure and function. They are dispersed throughout the body to transport blood, which carries oxygen and nutrients to every organ, tissue and cell, while simultaneously ...

Blood Vessels Diseases

Many of the blood vessel diseases that vascular surgeons see are due to atherosclerosis (the narrowing and hardening of your arteries), according to Peter Lin, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery at the Baylor College of Medic...

What Are the Three Kinds of Blood Vessels?

Blood vessels, along with the heart and blood, make up part of the circulatory system. At the center of this system is the heart, which pumps blood through the body. The blood carries nutrients, oxygen, and waste products (such...

What Are the Symptoms of Temporal Arteritis?

Temporal arteritis is an inflammation of the medium and large arteries of the body. Inflammatory cells invade the walls of the affected blood vessels causing reduced blood flow, also known as ischemia. Although it is a systemic...

What Are the Three Types of Blood Vessels in Our Bodies?

As the blood circulates through the body, it brings oxygen and nutrients to the body tissues and picks up the waste products, delivering them to the kidneys and lungs to be expelled. The heart is the pump of this closed-circuit...

How Blood Vessels Function

As the Franklin Institute explains, the arteries are designed to carry blood away from the heart. Almost all arteries (with the exception of the pulmonary artery, which carries blood to the lungs) are filled with oxygenated blo...

How Do Blood Vessels Constrict & Dilate?

As the Merck Manuals explain, the body is able to control blood pressure by expanding and constricting blood vessels. This allows the body to raise blood pressure when it is low and also allows the body to regulate the amount o...

Blood Vessels in the Human Body

The circulatory system is made of the heart, an interconnection of blood vessels and blood. The vessels start out large near the heart and branch off and become smaller to reach areas like the tip of the nose, the fingers and t...

Blood Vessels That Carry Blood to the Heart

Arteries carry blood away from the heart, and veins return blood to the heart. With one exception, blood carried away from the heart is oxygenated blood, and blood returning in the veins is de-oxygenated. The pulmonary circulat...

Blood Vessels That Direct Away From Heart

The heart is a pump with four chambers; the top chambers, the left and right atria, are the entry point into the heart for blood. After blood moves down into the left and right ventricles, it's pumped out and away from the hear...

Blood Vessels That Carry Blood Away From the Heart

The heart is part of the larger circulatory system. It is a large muscle that pumps blood to the lungs and the body using different blood vessels. It is important to know some basic anatomy to fully understand how the system wo...

Blood Vessels That Serve the Heart

The heart supplies the rest of the body with oxygenated blood. This may lead people to wonder how the heart muscle and tissue itself are supplied with oxygenated blood. The answer is simple: The heart gets oxygenated blood from...

What Are the Three Types of Blood Vessels in the Body?

Blood circulates through the body in a circle that travels from the heart, through the tissues, organs and lungs, and then back to the heart. Three types of blood vessels make up the circulatory system: arteries, veins and capi...

Foods That Constrict Blood Vessels

Constriction of the blood vessels is the body's way to raise the blood pressure. By narrowing the passage in the blood vessels, blood flows more slowly to the organs and the extremities. Certain foods may contribute to this pro...

Medications to Relax the Walls of Blood Vessels

Your blood vessels become tense when you suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension). This condition refers to an elevated amount of force that pushes against your vessel walls. Also, your blood encounters an increased amoun...

Foods That Cause Dilated Blood Vessels

Using food to help dilate blood vessels is a an effective and safe method to improve the circulation and help lower cholesterol. There are a number of foods and food groups you can use that help strengthen the action of the hea...

What Tissues Are Found in Blood Vessels?

The blood vessels of the body are classified into tree types, all three of these types of vessels have similar physiology, each being a variation on the same basic structure. The basic physiology of blood vessels consists of th...

Various Kinds of Blood Vessels

The circulatory system of the human body is responsible for providing oxygen and nutrients to cells as well as removing waste products. This crucial system is composed of the heart, blood and blood vessels, which work in unison...

The Three Basic Types of Blood Vessels

Blood vessels are hollow tubes that are responsible for circulating blood throughout the body and maintaining our pulse and blood pressure. There are three basic types of blood vessels--veins, arteries and capillaries. Each has...

Main Functions of the Spleen

It looks like a small rounded catcher's mitt with several notches on it, according to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. A healthy spleen weighs about 6 ounces and contains numerous vessels that enable blood and other fluid...

How Does Your Eye Work?

Your eyeball is located inside a pear-shaped bony cavity known as the orbit. The orbit also holds muscles, nerves, blood vessels and structures that form and drain tears. The white part of the eyeball is called the sclera. The ...

How to Check Testicles

You are probably not too young to start checking your testicles for cancer. The Mayo Clinic recommends that all men, beginning at the age of 15, should perform regular self-testicular exams. Testicular cancer, although a rare f...

The Process of Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is a common term used in cancer research. Angiogenesis occurs when a tumor creates new blood vessels from the existing ones, stealing nutrients from healthy cells and providing the oxygen and blood it needs to surv...

How to Use Styptic

Biology Online defines hemostatic as "a medicine or application to arrest hemorrhage." Alum stops bleeding by causing the blood vessels to constrict so that blood does not flow out of the cut. Styptic pencils are most commonly ...

5 Ways to Treat a Knocked-Out Tooth

However, knocking out a permanent tooth is a different matter. If properly seated back into the socket, even with blood vessel and nerve damage to the tooth, the tiny ligaments in the jaw can reattach to the root. If a dentist ...

5 Things You Need to Know About Blood Vessel Diseases

Blood vessel diseases and heart diseases fall under the broad umbrella of cardiovascular disease. Blood vessels and the heart are inextricably linked. The most common diseases that specifically target the vessels are hypertens...

5 Things You Need to Know About Behcet's Syndrome

Behcet's (pronounced beh-CHETS) Syndrome or Disease is a disease of the immune system causing inflammation of blood vessels that can occur most anywhere in the body. First discovered in Turkey in 1924 by dermatologist Hulusi B...

5 Things You Need to Know About Constant Headaches

A headache is a pain response to what's occurring in the body. Headaches result when muscles tighten due to stress, illness or injury, causing blood vessels to swell or constrict, which irritate nerve endings located in the he...