#Findfit: Here Are Two Important Key Elements For a Healthy Heart

Envision a body part vast enough to encircle the globe, yet so thin it's microscopic. Now, imagine a tiny molecule — that earned scientists a Nobel Prize for its discovery as a biochemical messenger — optimizing blood flow, appearing and disappearing in a blink. 

You’ve just met the dynamic duo: the endothelial glycocalyx (EGX) and nitric oxide (NO) — the unsung heroes of vascular function.

Your body is a symphony, and the conductor orchestrating this harmonious masterpiece is your vascular system. It's your literal lifeline, but most people never think about it, even though ignoring it can result in catastrophic health issues.

Today, I’m taking you on quite a journey to help you fully understand the EGX, nitric oxide, and the vascular system. By the end of this article, you'll discover vital health-optimizing insights like:

• The reason your vascular system acts as your body's maestro

• The pivotal role played by the endothelial glycocalyx

• The significance of nitric oxide

• How to harness nitric oxide for optimal vascular (and overall) health

What Is the Endothelial Glycocalyx?

The endothelial glycocalyx (EGX) is a dynamic, responsive structure that acts as the first line of defense for your endothelium — a large organ vital for keeping your blood flowing. The EGX is made from a delicate mesh of proteins and sugars. Microscopically thin, it determines what gets into your endothelium and stays in the bloodstream. That means the nutrients you consume reach their destination while keeping harmful substances at bay. It also plays a crucial role in blood clotting, responding to vascular insults, and maintaining vessel health.

Now here’s what you need to know from a practical point of view: The EGX, despite its resilience, is vulnerable.

It’s all too easy to stress this vital structure, and that can lead to a cascade of health issues. The trouble is, you can’t feel if your EGX is going down. You’ll only know about it when you run into serious problems with your cardiovascular health. 

However, when you take proper care of this essential structure, you can look forward to:

• Improving nutrient delivery from the food you eat and the supplements you invest in

• Enhancing blood circulation — think about fitness and your sexual life

• Fortifying your natural defenses against disease

Nitric Oxide — The Mighty Molecule for Vascular Health

• Discover the key roles of nitric oxide (NO)

• Understand how your body produces NO

• How NO connects to the EGX

• What happens when NO is in trouble

As well as providing a “smart barrier” between the flowing blood and the rest of your body, the EGX triggers the production of nitric oxide, a gas that is generated and then dissipates within the blood vessels. NO plays a truly decisive role in all sorts of physiological processes in your body, with implications for vascular health, neurological function, immune response, and more. 

Your body is in constant conversation with itself, and you could think of NO as a major part of the messaging network making that possible. 

Known as a “signaling molecule,” NO carries messages around the body, triggering processes to happen as needed. 

Here are some of the key roles of NO:

• Vasodilation: NO relaxes smooth muscles — the tiny muscles surrounding your arteries and arterioles. This leads to the dilation of blood vessels (vasodilation), enabling healthy blood flow. 

• Blood pressure regulation: By modulating vascular tone — the degree of constriction or dilation of blood vessels — NO is essential to maintaining normal blood pressure.

• Neurotransmission: Up there in your brain, NO serves as a neurotransmitter, and it’s important for a range of neural processes, including memory, learning, and pain perception.

• Response to vascular insults: NO is an important player in vascular wall remodeling, thrombosis, and enzymatic production.

As for the vascular system itself, NO is crucial for maintaining the health of the endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels. You may have heard of “stiffening of the arteries” — which is as terrible as it sounds. NO helps keep your blood vessels elastic, which is essential for responsive blood flow and healthy variations in blood pressure. NO also improves blood flow to muscles when they’re hard at work. And, as many people now recognize, NO is critical for sexual health because of its role in widening the vessels to allow more blood to flow. 

Probably less widely recognized, NO levels have important implications for aging because age-related vascular changes are a key factor for longevity and healthspan.