It’s just amazing. If you laid out all the blood vessels in your body in one line, those vessels would circle the world more than four times, totaling about 60,000 miles long. Keep in mind that those vessels would be working 24/7 too, pumping blood away from your heart and then back to it.
There are three different kinds of blood vessels; arteries, veins and capillaries. Each have a different function in the health of your body.
As your heart continually oxygenates your blood, arteries are the vessels that carry that oxygen-rich blood away from your heart to the capillaries. Arteries are thick, with muscles in the walls to help them keep their shape and cope with the pressure of your beating heart. This pressure is so strong that blood flows only in one direction within your arteries.
FACT – The aorta is the largest artery and is divided into ascending, aortic arch, descending thoracic and abdominal.
Capillaries are the “middle men”; they connect the arteries to the veins. They exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide in your muscles, bones, glands, organs – everything and anything inside your body, bringing that CO2 back to your veins. The smallest capillary is about 1/3 the width of a strand of human air and cells have to line up single file and sometimes deform themselves to keep moving.
FACT – When you squeeze your skin and it blanches, it’s because you’ve pressed the blood out of your capillaries. Go ahead, try it!
Veins carry blood back to the heart. They are thinner than arteries and not as muscular. Because veins are working against gravity and don’t have the pressure from your heart pushing that blood, veins have valves that open and close to keep your blood flowing only in one direction. There are three types of veins. Superficial veins can be seen with your naked eye. Perforating veins connect those veins with deep veins. Deep veins are within your muscles and transport about 90% of your blood back to your heart.
FACT – Varicose veins are caused by the failure of those valves, enabling blood to leak backwards.
Questions about the health of your blood vessels? Call Dr. Tanquilut and Dr. Pradhan at 815-824-4406 in New Lenox or Olympia Fields. We will be happy to answer those questions!
