How Flexible are Your Arteries???

In a post on their Well blog under the headline, “Phys Ed: Can Touching Your Toes Test Your Arteries?” writer Gretchen Reynolds answers thusly: pretty much.


“A provocative new study published this year in the journal Heart and Circulatory Physiology suggests that there may be a novel way to test at least one element of your heart’s health right in your own living room… Sit on the floor with your legs stretched straight out in front of you, toes pointing up. Reach forward from the hips. Are you flexible enough to touch your toes? If so, then your cardiac arteries probably are also flexible.”
“Cardiac artery flexibility is one of the less familiar elements of heart health. Supple arterial walls allow the blood to move freely through the body. Stiff arteries require the heart to work much harder to force blood through the unyielding vessels and over time could, according to Kenta Yamamoto, a researcher at North Texas and lead author of the study, contribute to a greater risk for heart attack and stroke.”