Wednesday 25 March 2009

intense exercise can it smash blood clots?

I was reading a back issue of Peak Performance (article 229). I'm floating around a theory in my head that we all experience mini traumas in our bodies on a regular basis. Not sure exactly how regular but maybe once a month. Maybe even daily. By micro trauma I mean something bad happening that if not dealth with properly could cause serious damage. Something as simple as a tiny blood clot or tiny fragement of something travelling round our blood stream could ultimately block a capillary. If enough capillarties were blocked in a key area such as for part of the herart muscle or brain we'd suffer problems.

We always notice the big traumas and then realise that we've been building to it for a long time. Our lifestyle has been leading to it. Well, if this is the case then what makes the difference between a clot blocking a capillary and it getting through, perhaps being broken up in the process.  Conventional wisdom suggests don't let them form and eat perfectly etc. That's fine but that assumes you've done everytying necessary to stop them forming. Logic is that you probably haven't. 

So my answer, or hope, is that there are natural ways to deal with this kind of situation. Namely decent exercise. Particularly sometimes pushing yourself as hard as you can. Why? well if your blood is being pushed around really fast then it'll be under a lot of pressure. If you've built up to this over many sessions then your body will be strong enough to resist the pressure. However the blood clots and other articles that shouldn't be there won't. Hopefully they'll be smashed or made sufficiently smaller so they don't present a risk any more. 

Well that's the theory. I just wanted to log it here cos it was left in my notes and could have got lost. Maybe something to support it will come along.

It's also worth mentioning that there is growing evidence that intense exercise every so often is great for preventing osteoporosis and diabetes. it's essentially about challenging your body regularly and pushing it to keep up with the maintenance required to support these activities. Essentially by pounding your bones you force the body to strengthen them preventing osteoporosis and by forcing your body to conserve its carbohydrate use it must maintaing its sensitivity to insulin. 

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