Summer heat – especially during exercise – can be hard on the heart because your heart plays a big role in keeping you cool. The added workload of exercise only increases the demands on your cardiovascular system, thus the load on the heart increases with activity and exercise, especially in hot weather.
Thai Massage Albuquerque Fact Corner: For every degree the body’s internal temperature rises, the heart beats about 10 beats-per-minute faster, the end result being a dramatic increase of stress on your heart.
Extra heat is shed by the body in two ways: Via perspiration and radiating warmth. You radiate heat through the blood flowing in your veins and arteries, and on a hot day, your cardiovascular system ramps up its efforts to radiate heat to cool you down. The human body should not get too cool or too warm; if there is too high of a temperature rise, the proteins that run virtually all chemical processes and build your body can stop working.
Most healthy people can tolerate these changes without much effort, but folks with weakened or damaged hearts (or individuals who are older and who may not respond as readily to stress as they once did) have a much more difficult time – and may succumb to heat stroke.
Here are some examples of what we’re talking about:
- Damage from a heart attack can keep the heart from pumping enough heat-shedding blood.
- Cholesterol-congested arteries can limit blood flow to the skin.
- Heat regulation can be interfered with by medications, with beta-blockers slowing the heartbeat and limiting the heart’s ability to circulate blood fast enough for effective heat exchange.
- Everything from a stroke and Parkinson’s disease to diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other complications can inhibit the brain’s dehydration response – thus failing to send signals that say you’re thirsty.
How a Professional Massage Therapist Can Help
As a result of receiving massage therapy, better circulation becomes part of a chain reaction that occurs in the body; an individual suffering with poor circulation can experience a plethora of uncomfortable situations including cold feet and hands, pooling of the fluid in the extremities (such as the toes), achiness created by an accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles and fatigue. Positive, free-flowing circulation, on the other hand, brings tense, damaged muscles the oxygen-rich blood they require to repair.
Massage encourages circulation in that the pressure created by the technique actually pushes blood through any backed-up areas, the release of this same pressure enabling fresh blood to flow in. The “pulling” and “squeezing” also flushes lactic acid from the muscles while improving the circulation of the lymph fluid, which carries metabolic waste away from internal muscles and organs.
We are the massage therapist Albuquerque has been waiting for. Contact Thai Massage Albuquerque today at (505) 235-8032 to learn more about circulation during the summer months.
