The Stram Center for Integrative Medicine

By Sue Coughtry, LMT
Here is a big incentive to keep stretching, or add it to your health regimen.  I just learned from an article on MSNBC that a study has found that women who are more flexible have about 7% less arterial stiffness and lower blood pressure than women who are less flexible. When you improve your flexibility by stretching it helps expand the arteries and keeps them more pliable, which improves heart function.  This suggests that the more flexible you are, the better your heart health is.  Amazing! We tend to link cardiovascular exercise with increased heart health and stretching just helps the muscles.  Now we know stretching helps the heart as well.  I’ve known for a long time how important regular stretching is for preventing and eliminating pain, but I had no idea that it could do this – though it does make sense.  If your body is stiff on the outside it’s most likely stiff on the inside, and that has to constrict organ function.  This study shows its true with heart function. This is another incentive for me to work more diligently on improving my own flexibility!  How about you?