If you know nothing about physiology, don' worry. Even though it took me many years to figure our what I'm about to say, I will say it in laymens terms. If you are trained in anything medical related, it will be very difficult to believe this. After learning about all the things that go wrong in the body, it is hard to conceive that our design is good. It will be startling to find out that decreased circulation is always self-protective in nature.

Benefits of Decreased Circulation

So why on earth would there be any benefit to the above mentioned diseases? Instead of dealing with them individually, let's deal with them together. What all these diseases have in common is simply that the end result is that the blood flowing decreases. But how is that beneficial? Did you ever wonder why it is that during exercise, you feel your heart beating faster? That is because the blood needs to flow more to keep up with the demands of your cells. On the other hand, when you are relaxed, the blood flows less. The key to understand is that a certain rate of blood flow is necessary depending on how hard the cells are working. More is not better. Less is not better. You need a precise amount.

Why Too Much Blood Flow Is Harmful

Your blood carries away carbon dioxide, and unloads oxygen. The faster the blood flows, the harder it is is to unload oxygen, and the more carbon dioxide is carried away. Since your cells depend on a precice amount of both carbon dioxide and oxygen, they could not survive too much circulation. All the above mentioned diseases have as an end result less blood flow.

Stress and Blood Flow

Suppose you have a repetitive habit of getting worked up about things you can't resolve. For example, while in the car you are thinking about how late you are. At that point, your heart starts beating faster. You are preparing for some event. However, the actual physical activity doesn't occcur. If the physical activity did occur, the cells would produce carbon dioxide, which would balance the carrying away of carbon dioxide by the blood. But when the increased circulation is not warranted, your blood chemistry as well as your cell chemistry is off.

When this occurs daily, or hourly, your body must find some way to deal with it. Essentially, decreased circulation is the end result. Interestingly, the low carbon dioxide created in this situation actually facilitates the smooth muscle around the blood vessels contracts, thereby limiting circulation. When the blood vessels need to be narrow for a long period of time, the muscle is replaced by scar, so the body can maintain narrow vessels without so much effort. This is the scar formation found in arteriosclerosis. At first glance, one might see the this as a disease, but after studying circulation for so many years, I see it is an unfortunate but necessary symptom under certain situations. Once the blood vessels lose their normal elasticity, the heart has to work harder to get the blood to the whole body. The high blood pressure, again, is a necessary compensation. It doesn't make the doctor happy, but that alternative would be worse. You need the high blood pressure to get the blood to all the cells.